How do you beat stall in Gen 7/8 OU and Ubers?

Question

Okay. This question is eating me.(not really lol) I'm sure many others want to know. I only play HO and can beat opposing HO players and sometimes balance players, but not stall. How do you beat stall in gen 7&8 ubers and gen7&8 OU?

Comments

There's no exact way to beat stall. You need to pressure stall, there's no set counter to beat it.

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there should be some answer

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I would stall the stallers :P

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Seriously? Stall vs Stall takes over 100 turns :P

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Super effective moves+wall breaker

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Clefable, Gliscor, Reuniclus, and Tapu Fini are all excellent stallbreakers

Answer 1

The thing is, in a battle between hyper offense and stall, it's either ho already won before the battle started or it loses outright to the stall team unless played carefully

So first is, once you see a stall team, you wanna press alt + f4 so that the frustration of losing to one is minimized

After you've done that, what you need to do is take your time. Remember, the turtle won the race, not the rabbit. During the team preview, identify which Pokemon is gonna wall your team and pressure it from the very beginning. For example, if you're team anchors on Zard X to clean up or wallbreak, get rid or pressure of the opposing Toxapex. If you're team relies on Volcarona, then the Blissey or Heatran. Ho only has a limited amount of turns to make something happen while stall basically has all the turns in the world

Alternatively, you can alter your ho team so it will not lose to stall no matter what. This is what I did to my own ho team by adding in a taunt Tapu Koko despite the possibility that it would end up being dead weight as losing to stall is stupid

If you are strictly playing ho, then the only thing you can really do is play your cards wisely. As I said earlier, you either completely destroy the stall team or it will stand before you like Trump's wall. However, since you asked how to beat stall in general, here are a few Pokemon that can defeat stall. This does not apply to one specific tier but rather, all tiers

Anyway, here are a few example Pokemon that stall would absolutely hate to face off

So first, in gen seven, there was a Pokemon introduced whose entire existence was tailor made to destroy stall, Tapu Fini. Literally everything that Tapu Fini can do is everything that stall hates. Status prevention, hazard removal, and above all, taunt. The best thing that stall can do against Fini is remove its leftovers but that doesn't save them as Fini only has to switch in and it has already greatly hindered the stall team via its terrain. This is especially true if Fini isn't the only defogger as that defogger can remove the hazards and ensure that knock off doesn't bother it. In gen eight, this is made even worse by Tapu Fini getting draining kiss. Yes it is walled by Toxapex but really, what is Pex gonna do to Fini in return? Knock off its item while Fini goes + 6 calm minds and slowly chips away at all the stall Pokemon's hp due to being unable to use a recovery move

Another Pokemon that ruins stall is Heatran, although this guy is a bit shaky against stall because of one thing, magma miss. Like Tapu Fini, Heatran also has taunt but it takes the infuriation against stall to a whole new level by trapping the walls. Unlike Tapu Fini however, it has to watch out for Mega Sableye in gen seven as Heatran cannot taunt it however, this is still a very powerful Pokemon against stall

These two Pokemon deserved special mention because they really mess with stall and they are both available in gen seven and eight. Really, any Pokemon that has access to taunt will annoy stall teams immensely. Gliscor, Tornadus Therian and many more are just among the list of Pokemon that stall hates

Also, there is always the good old brute force method to power thru stall's nonsense. Here are some special mentions that stall Pokemon absolutely hate

One of the best stall killers in generation seven has to be Mega Mawile. Really, this thing is almost impossible to switch into and getting a swords dance isn't that hard. By having play rough, thunder /fire fang or punch, can't remember which one it can learn, it almost single handedly destroys stall cores as Mega Sableye is never gonna live the play rough while it has the option to choose between destroying Skarmory or Toxapex. In fact, Mawile can even afford to drop swords dance and get full coverage with sucker punch, play rough and both moves I mentioned earlier to completely destroy anything stall tries to pull off

Kyurem Black is also another good example in gen seven due to z freeze shock. It will almost instantly kill one of stall's walls while bulky waters aren't gonna dream of facing Kyurem due to fusion bolt. Stall teams almost always has a Skarmory or Toxapex and these two Pokemon are just waiting to be slammed by Kyurem while a random Ferrothorn would drop to the z freeze shock. It's not as good as Mega Mawile but at least there's that

Specs Tapu Lele is also another Pokemon that stall greatly hates however, it does require some trapping assistance because of stall's ever present steel types. The reason specs Lele is good is because of psyshock. Blissey is never gonna dream of switching in safely into a psyshock while other physical walls hate psychic. Now, as mentioned, this does require trapping support, specifically Magnezone, so that Lele can mindlessly spam its psychic type stabs unhindered as dark types are gonna be afraid of moonblast

These same principles also apply in ubers, just play your cards carefully. In generation seven, dealing with stall is easier due to z crystal taking a huge chunk out of a wall and potentially allowing the next hit to straight up kill what walls you

All in all, there is no single best way to deal with stall. What you have to do is play it very carefully. Depending on which Pokemon are on the team, you usually just need to kill one wall to give your team an opening to power thru the rest of the stall team

Comments

Oh wow what a blast of information! Thanks a bunch :)

Answer 2

Going off of what Demon Hunter already said, there's a few things you can do. Taunt is the number one most important thing you can do. Stall Pokemon are going to be very heavily invested in status moves, whether that's a prankster such as klefki or whimsicott using a mix of substitute/protect/toxic or a definitive wall using restorative moves like recover/roost/rest as well as defense boosting moves like amnesia/iron defense/stockpile. Some walls like Ferrothorn and Toxapex even like setting up hazards, which get shut down by Taunt. If they didn't build at least one truly offensive move into their stall mon, Taunt is either going to force them to swap out, or kill themselves in a matter of turns with struggle.

The second most important thing you can do is coverage. Demon Hunter already mentioned Mega Mawile, but even in Gen-8 where megas are gone, Mawile should not be underestimated. First off, you get access to Sheer Force as a hidden ability. Most of Mawile's great coverage moves have a secondary effect to them, meaning they get boosted by Sheer Force. Couple this with a Life Orb, and you're hitting HARD even with regular Mawile's stats. And those coverage moves? All of the elemental fangs. Ice Punch and Thunder Punch. Several dark type moves though for a wall/stall breaker, I'd pick Crunch. Most people would say pick Sucker Punch on Mawile for priority, but it's useless as a breaker move, while Crunch benefits from Sheer Force, and has high base power even if you're using a Mega. What else? Brick Break. Rock Slide, Rock Tomb, and Stone Edge. Also STAB Iron Head and Play Rough. It may not have the amazing stats of Snorlax, but Mawile has the same amazing diversity in its move pool, and with it's amazing typing and choice of either Mega Evolution (which puts its stats just shy of Snorlax) or Sheer Force/Life Orb, it makes up the difference.

A great Gen-8 stall killer is Grimmsnarl. Prankster Taunt to kill all those status moves as discussed above, plus a move pool that's almost as good as Mawile's. All three elemental punches. Brick Break. Stomping Tantrum. Drain Punch. Shadow Claw. Plus a special attack that's higher than Mawile's base physical attack if not Mega, allowing for some great special moves like Burning Jealousy (take out those walls who managed to get their stat boosts up already), plus a choice of either physical or special dark and fairy moves.

And how could we forget Snorlax? Amazing coverage, already great base stats. Has access to Belly Drum in both gens. Only one weakness, but tanky enough to take effective hits anyways while dealing out massive damage. Immunity and Thick Fat are both great abilities as well.

Another fun alternative is to take a Pokemon that people expect to be a staller and turn it into an offensive powerhouse. Case in point, Toxapex. Run Merciless as the ability. Moveset includes Toxic, Liquidation, Poison Jab/Gunk Shot (depending on if you're willing to sacrifice accuracy for power), and Infestation. Toxic first thing, then infestation so they can't swap out to get Natural Cure or Regenerator or whatever ability in play. Because of Merciless, all your attacks become crits after they're poisoned, so any defensive boosts they may have in play are ignored.

Likewise, a Giga Drain/Earth Power/Shadow Ball Palossand is great, with the fourth move being either its signature Shore Up for recovery, or some more coverage like Psychic, Ancient Power, or Brine. This one works great in doubles combined with an Accelgor or Smeargle using Water Shuriken, targeted at the Palossand to activate Water Compaction in the first turn, which can then be used to activate a Weakness Policy or similar item on the Palossand to make it even better at sweeping the opposing team.

Even the mighty Klefki can sweep with Draining Kiss/Iron Defense/Calm Mind and a choice of Foul Play, Flash Cannon, or Stored Power for the fourth move. They wanna stall? Great. Every use of Calm Mind or Iron Defense increases the base power of Stored Power by 40, so a single Calm Mind boosts it from 20 to 60, while also giving you a 50% boost from the SpAtk boost. But even without Stored Power, if they wanna sit and stall, you Calm Mind in response, over and over, and then destroy with Draining Kiss or Flash Cannon. They wanna sit and be a wall? You become so powerful that you one shot those walls. And being steel type, you're ignoring any attempts they make to put toxic on you.

Finally, another great stall killer that is specific to gen-8 is Corviknight. Same great typing as Skarmory, but tankier. They're stalling by setting up terrain? Defog. They're trying to toxic stall everything? Steel type ignores it. Body Press takes advantage of your great defenses to do tons of damage, especially against normal type walls like Chansey, Blissey, and Snorlax. Drill Peck or Brave Bird for flying STAB, Iron Head for Steel STAB.

Basically, stall players have a pattern in how they do things. Their playstyle is a puzzle that only works one way. Learning their pattern lets you break them, but moves like Taunt, Haze, and Defog are the equivalent of taking a hammer to a Rubix Cube and sidestepping what they're trying to do. Taunt is the superior of the three, and far less situational. The best way to beat a stall player is to learn to think like a stall player and figure out the weaknesses in their strategy. If you disrupt the flow of their puzzle pieces, you increase your chances of winning.

For example, if they have a klefki with Toxic/Substitute/Protect/Recycle and a confusion berry, there are ways around it. Do you have a Pokemon who has an ability which prevents them from being poisoned or is the steel or poison type? Use them to deal with the klefki. Do you have a dark type with something like trick or switcheroo and an item to replace their berry for constant healing? Find a moment between their protects when the sub is down so you can outspeed them to swap their item. Force them to have to swap or mess around with their strategies and they start to fall apart, especially if they didn't plan for those kinds of situations. Walls with abilities like Natural Cure and Regenerator which rely on constantly swapping in and out lose a lot of their power when forced to stay in, either through moves like Mean Look or Infestation, or through abilities like Shadow Tag or Arena Trap. Zoroark is a great example of a dark type with Switcheroo, Grimmsnarl with Trick (though it has better ways of shutting down stall), and I already gave a great example of Infestation use earlier with Toxapex.

Comments

Edited to add further info.

Answer 3

The Real Answer Is There are more team types much more. and even more catagories of builds, bulky attack sweeper, Tank and so on.

So stall breaking is usually Taunt with another move.
You know the moves nobody uses Encore, Tickle, feather dance, screech or also bulk up, calm mind, psyshock, whirlpool, firespin, charm, will-o-wisp and mixed sets. There all actually known as "Stall-breaker" moves not to be confused with Wallbreakers. U-turn will also get you in a good position and entry hazard can limit switching.

In any game you play defence tanks have poor damage punish that weak point..

In short the path To a Stallbeak and WIN is to Weaken there damage output or just bulk up , calm mind.
You can always just go wallbreaker but not as effective.

Example: Talonflame Stallbreaker "Flame Body"
Taunt+ bulk up+ roost+ attack move

Comments

There are a whole bunch of things wrong with this answer.
Most of the moves you listed are useless against stall because they can reset the effect by switching out. Sure that buys a turn for you, but you already spent a turn using the move. Trapping moves might not work the first time you use it, and the opponent will almost always play around it after the move is revealed.
A stall team's "damage output" is mostly hazards and status conditions. I guess you could technically "weaken" that damage by using defog and Pokemon immune to poison, but it would be nice if your answer mentioned that.
Talonflame becomes useless if its heavy duty boots get knocked off, it switches into toxic, or the stall team has a Quagsire. Other wall breakers like Gliscor or Kartana are much more reliable.