So I've decided to post a thread about walls. No reason, just feel like it. I'll begin with a prompt, but all wall discussion is welcome here. So here's a prompt to spark some discussion: What is your...
Favorite wall to use?
I have two, both of which are my favorites largely due to the fact that I was the very legendary trainer who invented their sets:
LunarLight (Umbreon) (M) @ Leftovers
- Charm
- Growl
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
Among the innumerable unique and creative movesets I have made throughout the long history of my Pokémon battling career,
LunarLight is one of the creations of mine which I am personally most proud of. In fact, the only movesets among my creations of which I am more proud than
LunarLight are the
Luckpwner and the
Kazeryuu (two movesets which I'll also be posting a bit later on in this thread), the absolute best Pokémon in Generation II as well as the best moveset in that generation for my favorite Pokémon across all five generations, respectively. The reason why I favor
LunarLight so much is because it is by far the most bizarre and unique Pokémon in my
Supreme Absolute Defense team, as well as one of its most useful members, which can stop a myriad of sweepers dead in their track, making it the star and flagship Pokémon of that team. While Skarmory is long hailed as the greatest physical wall in GSC OU, there is a large number of physical threats that even it cannot stop, and Nidoking, Porygon2, Snorlax with Fire Blast, and Curse users with Roar such as Kangaskhan, Ursaring, Rhydon and Steelix are just a few examples of such. How exactly does a stall team such as the
Supreme Absolute Defense handle such physical attackers then, when the most dedicated physical wall in the entire metagame fails to stop them? The answer is
LunarLight. With Curse, the most popular stat-boosting move in Generation II raising the user's Attack by only one stage, while Charm lowers the foe's Attack by two stages,
LunarLight can easily neutralize just about any Pokémon that uses this move, regardless of whether or not they know Fire Blast, Roar, or any other countermeasures against Skarmory. But with Charm being such an effective technique for neutralizing sweepers that rely on Curse, then what exactly is the point of
LunarLight's three other moves: Growl, Rest, and Sleep Talk, especially since Umbreon also learns a reliable healing move in Moonlight? I built
LunarLight the way it is for a few reasons. The first, main, and most important reason is that Moonlight only has 8 PP, meaning that it is very unreliable on a completely stall-oriented Pokémon to be used in a completely stall-oriented team such as the
Supreme Absolute Defense, forcing this Pokémon to opt for Rest instead, as ironic as it may be considering the name I have personally bestowed upon this particular Umbreon. However, with Rest, Curse users can easily beat Umbreon by hitting it repeatedly on the switch until it is forced to use Rest, at which point they can set up with Curse and destroy the Moonlight Pokémon in its sleep. As a result, Sleep Talk becomes a necessary move on an Umbreon that is dedicated to countering Curse users. And
LunarLight's last and strangest move, Growl, is there to ensure that whenever it uses Sleep Talk, it has a 66.66% chance of selecting a move that lowers the target's Attack, as opposed to only having a 33.33% chance of doing so, and this is quite important, as even with Sleep Talk, certain powerful Curse users such as Snorlax, Rhydon and Ursaring can still overcome Umbreon in its sleep with some luck, if said Umbreon does not know both Charm and Growl. And the second reason for this moveset is because any GSC OU team that does not include a user of the move Heal Bell ought to contain a Pokémon that knows both Rest and Sleep Talk, and
LunarLight serves that role perfectly. And thirdly, by choosing
LunarLight as the user of Rest and Sleep Talk, it can also easily counter the incredibly popular Lovely Kiss Nidoking, another strong physical attacker which Skarmory cannot wall.
Surya (Lugia) @ Leftovers
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 252 HP / 52 Def / 204 Spd
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Roost
- Thunder Wave
- Toxic
- Whirlwind
While not as threatening as the Roost-Substitute-Toxic-Whirlwind/Dragon Tail set, which can easily 6-0 teams that don't have answers to entry hazards, this Lugia is, in my opinion, the ultimate defensive Pokémon in the entire Übers tier, simply because of the ease with which it switches in and simply neutralizes the vast majority of fast offensive threats with Thunder Wave, while crippling the slower and bulkier ones with Toxic, and also easily stopping set-up sweepers by using Whirlwind combined with its insane bulk thanks to Multiscale, which allows it to survive unbelievably powerful assaults including +1 super effective Judgments and +2 Shadow Forces.
Least favorite wall to use?
Any wall that utilizes the move Will-O-Wisp, since such a move is no different from Splash the vast majority of the time when it is used from my experience.
Wall you most hate countering?
Out of all the walls I have ever encountered across numerous metagames throughout the long history of my Pokémon battling career, and also taking into account my experience with all of the teams I have ever used in those metagames, I'd say that the single wall that I dislike facing the most is the Recover or Roost/Substitute/Toxic/Whirlwind or Dragon Tail Lugia in DW/No Preview Ubers and Wifi Ubers, simply because from my experience, the vast majority of teams that do not have countermeasures to entry hazards (and even those that do have countermeasures to entry hazards, after the Rapid Spinner or Magic Bounce Pokémon has been taken out) get completely destroyed by it, which is the primary reason why I believe that many Übers teams (and in fact, I believed that
all Übers teams at one point) need countermeasures to entry hazards, as despite the ease with which Rapid Spin can be blocked, the very presence of a Rapid Spinner out on the battlefield still forces the opponent's Lugia to switch out, possibly wasting their Substitute and most likely being forced to take Stealth Rock damage the next time it enters the battlefield again, giving an opening to allow one to heavily damage the opponent's Lugia, or cripple it with status. And although none of my current good teams are heavily threatened by the aforementioned Lugia (almost entirely due to the way I have conciously built such teams, having in mind my innumerable experiences facing it in the past), I still cannot forget the huge amount of trouble I have experienced against that Lugia with countless old teams of mine in the past.
Honorable mentions regarding walls that I dislike facing include:
- Support Arceus-Rock (or simply Arceus-Rock in general) due to its effectiveness at walling my current best Übers teams.
- Ferrothorn due to its type combination combined with its access to annoying moves such as Leech Seed, Stealth Rock, Spikes and Thunder Wave, and although Ferrothorn is hardly a nuisance for my best Übers teams, one has to wonder what is one of the biggest reasons why I heavily favor and primarily use Sun teams in Übers in the first place. Ferrothorn has also been a huge nuisance to me back when I first started playing DW OU on the Pokémon Online server, as I primarily used a rain team back then, and Ferrothorn still made me contemplate on using a team of a different weather, despite the fact that the Swift Swim + Drizzle combination and one-hit KO moves were legal in that tier back then, and my rain team contained Kingdra, a Sheer Cold Cryogonal and a Sheer Cold Hydration Lapras).
- Last but certainly not least, Eviolite Porygon2 in OU, due to the ease with which it walled my offensive Pokémon from my memory, as well as the ease with which it crippled my Pokémon with Thunder Wave (which was also a large part of why I abused Sheer Cold Hydration Lapras in DW OU back when one-hit KO moves were allowed in that tier).
