Help How to beat stall?

Missilistico

Missilistico

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Hi guys,
I'm not that new anymore in the game, but I'm always a noob in the soul. As a noob, I have difficulty to beat stall. Since I'm tired of forfeiting turn 2, I'm asking some valid suggestions. I know every deck should use slight different cards, but I think there will be two or three general strategies: e.g., I know Oranguru can resource management, Judge disrupts Steven, and Lusamine.
Can you help me?
 
It's not hard to run cards that hard counter stall. LOT Girafarig and TEU Persian both single handily destroy stall decks (namelytbut getting rid of the lusamine loop). But the thing is running cards just to beat stall makes you deck worse against all the other match ups which is what 95+% of all your matches. It's just not a good trade off in the long run. If you're really afraid of stall it's better on the whole to run a deck that is just naturally better against stall (like Reshizard) then to weaken you deck with tech cards for a single generally rare match up
 
It heavily depends on what kind of deck you're playing. If you're playing a deck with no energy acceleration and a lot of special energy, you'll have a very hard time with stall. Also if you're playing a single prize not very heavy hitter deck, you may have a hard time with some of the stall decks (though I had no problem with Wall Stall with QuagNag at Madison, for example; it just depends on the situation.)

Reshizard on the other hand can pretty much hit for 230 in one turn or two at most. As long as you're playing enough field blowers, you're not going to have any problem knocking out whatever they put up there (field blower to deal with the Lucario/Melmetal with frying pan).

Other decks that have some acceleration and play with at least a decent amount of basic energy - Zapdos for example - and can still hit for something can usually beat it eventually, at least with the right techs. If you're hitting a lot of stall, then include those techs. (Mr. Mime is the major one, to prevent Acerola. Let Loose Marshadow and/or Judge to prevent them from winning with Unown HAND and removing key cards from their hands.)

And then just practice - don't quit turn two, even if you don't think you can beat it. Play it a lot. Get used to being very conservative with your resources. Playing against Stall means not putting things on the board until the turn you're ready to use them when possible. Don't let them field blower/crushing hammer/etc. your cards when it's not that card's turn to actually do damage.

And remember - Stall is successful only rarely, and only when circumstances of the meta are very specific. It's there basically to take advantage of people who don't tech for it. When Stall is rare, for the most part you may just accept that you will lose to it and move on. There's always a deck that you'll just not win many games against, no matter what you play. Zapdos might as well close up shop when Weezing comes out. Pikarom has Buzzroc. Lost March has Ultra Malamar. You play what you think will beat most of the decks other people play - the metagame, after all, being half the fun of Pokémon.
 
What's really helped me is actually playing Stall myself. Stall can be hard to wrap your head around, especially without any experience playing it yourself. By playing the deck I've come to know what Stall wants out of each matchup, which allows you to play better vs. it when the time comes.
 
Lovely answer from both of you guys. So, in a nutshell, I should not care about stall so much, and soft tech against it at most. I like the suggestion of trying it too: I'll do! Thanks again to all of you.
 
Not a veteran here, two things that did help me against stall:
  1. Constantly breathing to be calm, observe their flow. What does Lusamine brings back? Why does it brings back?
  2. “How many cards on your hand?” and “I’ll check your discard pile”. Having almost 36 cards to complete Unown Hand and having to put it all back by judge can be frustrating for then. Field blowing their items, remember they’re players like us, things can go wrong!
Hope this also helps you! :D
 
I've found a funny way to cope with stall: Gengar & Mimikyu Gx! With it, it's easy to ko the first Lucario & Melmetal, or Wailord and Magikarp Gx. Then, there are the Hoopa, but you get half of the job done! :)
 
Missilistico said:
I've found a funny way to cope with stall: Gengar & Mimikyu Gx! With it, it's easy to ko the first Lucario & Melmetal, or Wailord and Magikarp Gx. Then, there are the Hoopa, but you get half of the job done! :)
Click to expand...

Be wary of offensive versions, as they can KO gengar mimikyu (done that before)

I play stall, so you can ask me about the matchup. Some tips are:

- ignore stall as a major matchup. Unless you know you will face multiple, it's a deck you can afford to take an L to if it strengthens more common matchups.
- keep an eye on Stevens, and know when to hand disrupt. If they have 3-4 discarded, you should play the disrupt.
- Aim for the tie. Basically, unless you think you can take a win G2, force the tie. If they lack unown, this is great. If they do, judge/marshadow at the right time.
- if you want hard counters, persian is nice, it can be worked around. Oranguru is a pain and usually a lugia target. Girafarig kills lusamine (same as lysandre prism) tool buster farfetched kills shedy stall.

Any more specifics, just ask
 
So you're playing mally?
Just get a tina out and do 130 every turn.
Play as little cards as possible and SAVE YOUR MARSHADOW.
Bench big gxs to put damage on but be careful because the Lucario/Melmetal can do 50 out of nowhere.
Watch out for the Lugia GX play and be careful to not be guzma-stalled. Have escape board and energy in hand.
They can't acerola every turn so you just need to be able to 2 hit KO.
If they throw a lucario at you as a "LOL, you can't 2-shot this," just use ultra necrozma.
Stall is a easy win.
 
AngryBokoblin said:
So you're playing mally?
Just get a tina out and do 130 every turn.
Play as little cards as possible and SAVE YOUR MARSHADOW.
Click to expand...
You could also just 2HKO your own Marshadow with Shadow Impact to both prevent cards like Counter Catcher or Lt. Surge and also to be able to reuse Let Loose with Rescue Stretcher.
 
I've found 1 Oranguru (Resource Management) and 1 Brock's Grit to be an effective counter against stall decks.
 
Last edited:
AngryBokoblin said:
So you're playing mally?
Just get a tina out and do 130 every turn.
Play as little cards as possible and SAVE YOUR MARSHADOW.
Bench big gxs to put damage on but be careful because the Lucario/Melmetal can do 50 out of nowhere.
Watch out for the Lugia GX play and be careful to not be guzma-stalled. Have escape board and energy in hand.
They can't acerola every turn so you just need to be able to 2 hit KO.
If they throw a lucario at you as a "LOL, you can't 2-shot this," just use ultra necrozma.
Stall is a easy win.
Click to expand...

Actually, mally is easier than that. Play the marshadow early, like on first Stevens, then either KO or use acerola. If girafarig is played, it hurts if they hit a discarded gira, and psychic energy. Just be wary with malamar. They can be trapped nice and easily. And dw necrozma is a bad choice. Power plant+guzma. Gg
 
Some stall builds can beat malamar, I've actually built one with a winning record against it. It can do so because metal energy is a finite resource, you don't have free retreat (save via escape board, and I play lysandre labs) and the deck can wall your attackers, just not all of them at once. High switch counts do help the malamar player and make the matchup much harder for me, though.

The things I'd emphasize in general, apart from specific anti-stall techs, is to conserve your energy (skull grunt does make that part way trickier, but don't do its job for me) use Guzma well (and switch, if you play it) and pay attention to what you bench. It almost feels like playing stall with how carefully you have to manage your resources - I've won so many matches because opponents wasted key cards off an ultra ball or Dedenne and put down cards they shouldn't, letting me trap them in the endgame. If I'm not Lusamine chaining, about to evolve into my win button, or at risk of a benchout, you probably don't need to burn too many resources and can afford to bide your time for that perfect turn.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top