STALL'S NOT DEAD!
When we got confirmation that terastal would be permanent, everyone knew this was coming, which was why GF made sure to dexit it ban it to National Dex (if it gets banned from Nat Dex OU then Nat Dex AG it is)
Shedinja @ Heavy-Duty-Boots/Air Balloon/Safety Goggles
Tera Type: Electric/Normal/Steel/Poison
Ability: Wonder Guard
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Protect
- Toxic
- Will-O-Wisp
- Poltergeist
(You would likely run baton pass for momentum too if it's legal/you're in natdex ag)
Here's a list of the tera types and their main strengths/weaknesses
Electric:
Immune to 99% of moves with air balloon
Vulnerable to all forms of chip damage
Can't switch into Thunder Wave to gain a status immunity
If chip damage is uncommon and/or you can deal with hazards well, run this
Normal:
Only vulnerable to fighting
Vulnerable to all forms of chip damage
If you're running boots and would rather have a fighting weakness over a ground weakness then this is better than electric
Steel
Weak to fire, fighting and ground, can mitigate one with air balloon
Immune to sandstorm
Immune to poison
BUT
Magnezone can trap it and OHKO with body press if it's running it, even adamant scarf with dig wouldn't save you
Poison
Weak to psychic and ground, can mitigate one with air balloon
Immune to poison
BUT
Can't absorb tspikes if running air balloon
If you're facing a specs Tapu Lele, don't tera unless you need it for something even scarier
Other pokemon will be able to use terablast to get super effective coverage against you, however, the odds are greatly stacked in your favor:
1. Because you can only terastal 1 pokemon per team, it would only really make sense to run terablast on 1 mon per team maybe two, otherwise you're basically wasting moveslots that could be used for other things
2. Megas, Zs, Primals and some other mons may not be able to terastal at all depending on how the nat dex team decides to implement this mechanic
3. Electric tera + Air Balloon will still wall them no matter what type they tera into
4. Most pokemon would rather use their tera type to either boost their STAB power or to help them cover the things that would naturally wall them, i.e the things that resist their STABs, aka they won't always be choosing Fighting or Ground just to hit the untiered 236 BST bug
5. Dexited pokemon will not be able to use terablast as they gain no new moves
When you can wall almost the entire meta in one teamslot, you can dedicate multiple mons to try and cover for Shedinja's weaknesses, mainly to keep hazards off the field and setup your own
Another interesting mon we're getting is Cyclizar, a Normal/Dragon type with Regenerator, U-Turn, Knock Off, Rapid Spin and a signature move Shed Tail that's basically Baton Pass + Substitute in one move slot, first of all it has the typing and ability to be a great Basculegion check:
(Note that 12 Spe Cyclizar (base 121) always outspeeds 252+ Spe Basculegion (base 78))
252 Atk Choice Band Adaptability Crawdaunt (Base 112) Double-Edge (Wave Crash) vs. 244 HP (Base 70) / 252+ Def (Base 65) Drampa: 166-196 (48.5 - 57.3%) -- 94.1% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Crawdaunt (Base 112) Ice Fang vs. 244 HP (Base 70) / 252+ Def (Base 65) Drampa: 180-214 (52.6 - 62.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
While a 2 HKO might seem like it wouldn't be a switch-in, consider that in a real scenario, Cyclizar would outspeed and go for knock off and live the next hit most of the time, then be able to U-Turn out and heal up most of its health with Regenerator, after the Choice Band is knocked off, all the 2 HKOs turn into 3 HKOs and Basculegion can be worn down through repeated knock offs until it's dead (knock off is a 3 HKO)
Shed Tail and Rapid Spin also synergize extremely well with Shedinja, one can remove hazards and has more PP than the hazard moves meaning it can outleast the hazard setters while using Regenerator to stay healthy and the other can be used to give Shedinja a status immunity, allowing it to sweep because it can't be hit by anything
anymore, as such, Cyclizar would be my 2nd pick for this hypothetical stall team, here's what a sub sweeper shedinja set would look like:
Shedinja @ Air Balloon
Tera type: Electric
Ability: Wonder Guard
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature OR Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Poltergeist
- Secret Power
- Toxic/Will-o-wisp/Spite/Heal Block/Screech
Your main sweeping move is Poltergeist, Secret Power is a 70 Base Power Normal-Type move with 32 PP that can paralyze, great against pokemon that would otherwise stall you out, even if you don't break through, they'll still be crippled, the 4th move should be a utility move to help you break past things that would otherwise wall you, Toxic and Will-o-wisp for residual damage while you spam your 32 PP moves SD and Secret Power, Spite decreases the enemy's PP, Heal Block prevents them from healing and Screech lowers their defense and has 64 PP (note that you don't want them to use Struggle since that would hit through Wonder Guard, it would stop your sweep but that pokemon would basicaly be dead)
Now at this point what matters the most is filling the four remaining team slots with mons that can cover for Shedinja's weaknesses so what beats Shedinja?
-Hazards
-Tyranitar
-Hippowdon
-Excadrill
-Haxorus
-Veluza
-Tinkaton
Ttar, excadrill and tinkaton are all weak to ground, so if it starts out legal, Arena Trap
Dugtrio would make a great inclusion on the team to remove these problematic mons, likely running Groundium Z for a bit more fire power to help KO things on that first turn before they can KO it back
The next 2-3 teamslots would likely be dedicated to setting and removing hazards, Pressure defoggers like Zapdos and Corviknight could out-pp the hazard moves, a Magic Bounce user like Hatterene or Mega-Sableye, the team's mega slot could punish careless attempts to get hazards up while Corviknight and Zapdos with Leftovers could repeatedly switch into U-Turn without losing any health, Tornadus-T also deserves a mention because of Regenerator, it would not have Pressure but its ability to stay health throughout the match despite the recovery move PP nerf and its access to Heat Wave and Toxic to threaten most hazard setters make it another contender
As for a hazard setter, there are many many choices with the Gen 9 Spikes and Stealth Rock distribution, too many to really discuss, once the meta is playable I'm sure we'll settle down on a few, I'll point out some that look to be stand outs, Gliscor with Poison Heal and Stealth Rock/Taunt/Defog would be able to remain healthy without spamming Roost and get up rocks without letting the opponent do the same
Given the sheer number of new pokemon with OP abilities, Galarian Weezing gets an indirect buff, probably not enough to keep it viable but it may have a niche for checking some of the crazy chinese dark types as well as being able to outspeed Kingambit to burn it with Will-o-wisp
Also on that note, can anyone clarify how the ruin abilities work? Are they an actual -1 that can be punished with Defiant/Competitive/Contrary or ignored via Clear Body/Full Metal Body/Big Pecks or do they just silently decrease defense by 1, if it's a true -1 then they might not be as problematic given that we now have three Defiant users that resist dark and have a secondary type to resist 2 of the 4 chinese dark types' secondary stabs, if any of the ruin pokemon get a kill, you could bring in a scarf Gapdos or Bisharp and KO something back, on the other hand, if it is a true -1 then it won't go away if Gastro Acid is used, though that's much less relevant
For these reasons, I honestly believe that terastal Shedinja will be become
Stall's Great Destined Savior in early Gen 9 that will keep it viable