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[Guide] Stall: SLAC Guide
#1
Stall in Uranium – SLAC review
 
If you are following the UCC (Uranium Competitive Collective), Uraniums dedicated server for all things competitive related, you might have seen the acronym „SLAC“ being used (mostly with a side of disgust) and you might have wondered what this „SLAC“ really is. Well SLAC describes the team composition of S51-A, Luxelong, Antarki and Corsoreef and is generally accepted to be the most successful attempt at stall in Uraniums battle sim so far. I, the „inventor“ of SLAC will guide you in this thread through the process of how SLAC was made, why and how it works, what you can do against it and an outlook on how stall in Uranium might evolve in the future.
 
 
Trivia
Ever since I learned about the existence of the battle sim of Uranium, I‘ve been one of the more active players on it and back then the sim had a lot more missing features and bugs. One of the missing features was an updated list of hazard removal in Uranium. During that period the only hazard removal we had were the S51-line and the Snopach-line (and maybe Hazma with Defog but we never used it back then). Well there was also the Ratsy-line but we had some sort of unspoken rule not to use the rat that was even more busted back then due to the sim not having the nuclear moves correctly implemented (Fission Burst had no drawbacks and a 20% flinch chance). In general there were some rules based on trust not to abuse obviously broken stuff like Belly Drum and without these rules it would have been impossible to create a functional stall team.
Back to the hazard removal options or rather option: S51-A
S51-A was basically required for a functional team if you weren‘t running hyper offense due to the fact that it was the only viable hazard removal you could use and had a fantastic typing to prevent a random Xenoqueen from sweeping you. During that time I met someone on the sim called Jabuloso and in the effort to create the strongest team we discovered for ourselves that Luxelong and S51-A formed an incredible defensive backbone for a team, being able to cover each others weaknesses while also providing cleric support for the team due to Luxelongs access to Wish and Heal Bell. This went on for a while until I battled someone on the sim called Banter (Ten Graves on Discord). He used a Calm Mind Antarki and destroyed me with it. So after that demonstration I dug a little deeper into Antarki and realized that it was the perfect counter to the SpDef UFO that was basically omnipresent at that point. Shortly after that I found myself in quite a few games where scarf Chimaconda was a huge problem for my team and the counter I tried prior wasn‘t sufficient enough, that being Pajay. I started looking through the dex and realised that Corsoreef was basically a hard counter to every scarfed Chimacond since it could reliably tank two Hidden Power Grass from it. The battles I had after that (mainly against Jabuloso, Vinii and Poisseman) involved quite a lot of suffering on their part as they were unable to break through this defensive core and were stalled out quite easily. Talking about that defensive core  wasn‘t that fun when you always had to write out every pokemon in it and so the term SLAC was introduced.
 
The individual members
 
S51-A @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SDef
IVs: 0 Spe
Sassy nature
- Flash Cannon
- U-turn
- Rapid Spin
- Recover
 
Starting with S51-A, it‘s basically the standard specially defensive set. Flash Cannon for reliable damage, as the UFO still hurts quite a bit even with no special attack investment. Rapid Spin to remove hazards as S51-A is still one of the best ways of removing them in Uranium, Recover for healing and Uturn with Sassy nature and 0 speed IVs to bring in other team members safely in and scout switches. A particular benefit of this is that you can outslow a Chainite that isn‘t speed creeped on this set, allowing you to Uturn out of a Pursuit for minimal damage.
 
Luxelong @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Sdef
IVs: 0 Atk
Bold nature
- Moonblast
- Wish
- Protect
- Heal Bell
 
Luxelong is the dedicated cleric of this core and your main switch in to the various physically offensive fire-types and Knock Off users. Luxelong has a reputation for being immortal due to it‘s abillity Regenerator which also allows it to function extremely well as a Wish-passer for the group. Using Wish means Protect is a given on the set, as well as Heal Bell to cure status ailments. Moonblast is there for a reliable STAB option and to not be Taunt bait. This also helps in dealing with Mega Baariette which can be a big threat if it gets a Swords Dance up. This set has the issue however that it can not really touch S51-A at all, but this is where the next member of the team comes into play.
 
Antarki @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Sdef
IVs: 0 Atk
Bold nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Recover
- Taunt
- Shadow Ball
 
Antarki is basically Sableye if Gamefreak wanted to make it as annoying as possible in XY. Physically defensive Antarki shuts down so many physical attackers, that it is honestly easier to say what physical attackers work against it than to say what it counters, but it‘s primary function is to prevent Rapid Spin from S51-A. The proven standard set for S51-A can not deal at all with Antarki and even when they U-turn on the switch, Rocky Helmet will chip them anyway. The UFO has to go out of it‘s way to account for Antarkis presence with something like Toxic to seriously hurt it, as an uninvested Dark Pulse does not even do 50% to Antarki. The set also does fairly well against almost every cleric in the game bar Vaporeon, preventing them from removing status and healing their teammates via Wish. Shadow Ball is preferred over Flamethrower due to the tendency of bulky waters to switch into Antarki. While Antarki has few problems with handleing the vast majority of physical attackers, it struggels with special attackers, especially those who can set up and have super effective moves against it, as a Taunt to prevent the setup can end up costing you your Antarki which leads us the last member of the team:
 
Corsoreef @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 Sdef
IVs: 0 Atk
Calm nature
- Stealth Rock
- Recover
- Toxic
- Mirror Coat
 
Corsoreef can tank a lot of special hits thanks to its solid bulk and access to Recover and Regenerator as abillity. The general problem with it however is that it is extremely passive, allowing and easy setup for most attackers. As such I‘ll be the first to admit that Corsoreef is the weakest member of that team by far, but it has a niche and it is an important one: Choice locked special attackers have a hard time killing Corsoreef and Corsoreef can fire back with a deadly Mirror Coat. As such Choice Scarf Chimaconda fails to accomplish anything at all against Corsoreef except setting up Toxic Spikes, since even a quad effective Hidden Power Grass fails to 2HKO Corsoreef on the switch, effectively stopping any attempts at an Overheat sweep. While still passive, Toxic puts a timer on setup, allowing you to play around the threat in most cases even though it will most likely end up costing you a mon or two. Stealth Rock is there because it is Stealth Rock and therefor the best move in the game. Jokes aside, stall is built around passive damage and therefor hazards are greatly appreciated to assist in the effort, especially since they help chipping down the dangerous fire types in the tier.
 
Counters
 
SLAC, even with 3 of the 4 members resisting fire, still has trouble with some fire types. Inflagetha can Swords Dance up freely against Luxelong while being immune to burn, Antarki can break through it with a Calm Mind or Choice Specs set, some Beliaddon sets - especially a Bulk up set – can break through and a well played non Choice locked Chimaconda can boost up with Overheat and kill everything at +6.
Another big problem for SLAC is passive damage through Sandstorm, Hail, Stealth Rocks, Spikes and Toxic Spikes since especially Antarki needs all the HP it can get, so Ghost types preventing spinning options are a huge nuissance for it. Particulary Mismagius, Dramsama and Antarki are a pain in this regard since they belong to the next counter category: special boosters.
I mentioned non choice locked Chimaconda already as it is able to boost up freely against SLAC, but other noteable ones in this area are S51-A-T, Mismagius, Dramsama, Antarki, Shell Smash Escartress, Vilucard etc.
Another problem for SLAC are pokemon with some kind of status immunity. A Gliscor with activated Poison Heal, Guts Baariette and Herolune and Magic Bounce pokemon, especially Nimflora are difficult to deal with using SLAC.
Physical attackers that can avoid the Will-O-Wisp through outspeeding Prankster Antarki also threaten SLAC severely. This includes Gale Wings Harptera and Sudden Strike users should Antarki be weakened enough.
Defog is another way to reduce the effectiveness of SLAC as it has no way of punishing it.
 
Team Options
 
SLAC enjoys support against special attackers, so a phazer with special bulk is a good partner. Laissure is a good option in that department as it has respectable bulk, Roar as well as Dragon Tail and Spikes but no good recovery. Another great failsafe is Feliger due to its absurd bulk, the fact that Lazy isn't functional at the moment, Slack Off and Roar. Further options with viability include Syrentide (preferably Mega if allowed), Fafninter, Dunseraph, Umbreon etc.
To solve the problem with Swords Dance Gliscor and Inflagetha, Umbreon is a good option due to Foul Play, but bulky water types like Syrentide, Tubareel and Gyarados (to an extend) can also work. Nimflora or Cubblfly also do fairly well as partners due to their Magic Bounce abillity that makes it difficult for the opponent to lay down hazards. Winotinger works as a status absorber and CM booster fairly well on SLAC ever since it got Softboiled as MG move (MG abillity is pixilate though, so abuse Magic Guard as long as the combination is still possible).
 
Future of stall in Uranium
 
Oh dear, where do I start: Basically if you want to use stall, do it now as future updates to the sim will make stall worse and worse. Starting off with the positives for the future, Gargryph will be a pretty good member on stall when it‘s abillity Rebuild is finally functional. Additionally, trapping will help making Terlard the worse Dugtrio (an important stall member in Gen 6). I can also see Jerbolta being pretty good on stall when Quick Charge is implemented to scare of boosted threats after a kill.
Now to the negatives: Functional Shadow Tag, Acceleration and especially fully functional Infernal Blade are very bad news for Stall as Chainite can then trap with ease, Infla can hit a lot harder and Beliaddon breaks through Luxelong. Furthermore trapping through moves like Whirlpool allows many pokemon to abuse the structure of the current stall teams (for example Blubelrog can dismantle SLAC very easily using a Whirpool + Toxic + Surf + Taunt set with Black Sludge if trapping through moves would work). Another big problem for stall will be Substitute as it allows physical attackers to break through Antarki as well as avoiding status and phasing via Dragon Tail.
All in all I don‘t see stall getting better with time so I guess when you want to annoy your friends, do it as soon as possible.
 
A special thanks goes out to everyone who has ever suffered against SLAC as I can imagine the frustration you all felt ^^ Thank you for reading.
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Messages In This Thread
Stall: SLAC Guide - by Tanamar - 01-04-2020, 08:27 PM
RE: Stall: SLAC Guide - by Lord Windos - 01-05-2020, 03:10 AM
RE: Stall: SLAC Guide - by Tanamar - 01-05-2020, 08:04 AM
RE: Stall: SLAC Guide - by Dragonstrike - 01-05-2020, 02:54 PM

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