what's up guys this is pink across we're going to go over the essential components of a good Hazard stack team look at some examples then put it all together with a final team example so first up let's look at some spikes users a spike user is essential to every Hazard stack and to clarify uh a hazard stack is not about stacking every Hazard typically uh toxic spikes and sticky web are exempt from what would normally be considered Hazard stack so what we're really talking about today is Stealth Rock and spikes uh now these are some of the most common users I have here and I'll go over and explain when you want to use them in a minute but before we get into that I also want to clarify uh that there are more Pokemon that get spikes right if we look spikes you know there there are there are a lot more right Deoxys speed meow Scara ogre Pon even glamora right but this is about bulky Hazard stack that's what we're talking about today so yes there are a lot of other Pokemon that get spikes but generally if you're running a bulky hazard stack team you don't want a well spring or a Meara to be your Spiker I will make a video on offensive Hazard stack in the future if you guys are interested in that as well but let's take a look at these options so Claire is a big one now it's not the most common of the of all these maybe other than Garchomp it's probably the least common choice but it is pretty solid if you look at all the water types in the current metag game having a water absorb Pokemon like Claire uh can be really really nice dealing with threats like wake primarina and and even with Terra steel it can actually shut down a Wellspring pretty well you can also run unaware on this uh and of course there are other options like poison jab Claire as well uh but especially for those bulkier really on the even on the bulkier side of bulky Hazard Stacks Claire is a great choice uh now gcore is arguably the best Spiker and uh it typically you can run a lot of sets you can run uh poison jab you can run earthquake uh there are you can run U-turn there are a ton of things glcore can run but protect spikes and knockoff are three that I think are really really strong options Tera of course usually something that helps to deal with Wellspring gcore just incredibly strong Pokemon overall you can run enough speed for modest raging bolt hitting 250 is pretty common they also you can run special defense physically defensive goly score is very customizable and very strong now Skarmory is nice too because with iron defense I can help handle a lot of sweepers uh notably King gabit while also setting spikes uh so it's it's a pretty strong Spike user as well Tingo now I will say something benefit that uh Claire glcore and Skarmory all have Claire has recovery so it's okay with running boots uh Skarmory is not that weak to hazards so it doesn't need boots only taking 12.5 from rocks glcore of course not too weak to rocks either tinglu though it is weak to spikes but you really don't want to run a boots Tingo very often uh it really does need leftovers to have any sense of longevity in a game now you could pair it with a wish passer like allam mola but that is something to keep in mind when you're running tinglu uh is that on a boot spam team it's it's a bit tough to pull off without a wish passer and then lastly we have Garchomp and you some people stack a Stealth Rock on this as well over rest and add wish support uh but guard chomp is is pretty solid it's definitely the most niche of all these spikes users but it can work pretty well and can really punish physical hits card so if you're running an all mola Hazard stack I'd say you should really consider Garchomp allo Chomp is a very strong core now let's look at Stealth Rock So something to note as we go through this list it's very important that your Stealth Rock Setter can either Force corvite out or you have a switch into Gango because if your hazard stack gets defogged easily by corve uh that's not a very good has with stack so all the things that we just went over that can set spikes can also set Stealth Rock I personally I think running Stealth Rock on Skarmory and gcore is a bit of a waste with how good they are at setting spikes uh but Claud zire tinglu and Garchomp can all use it fairly well and now to go over some really good ones so clefable is great as a Stealth Rock user on Hazard stack because of its magic guard making it a really really nice absorber of knockoff and it can also provide wish support which is cool now only 95 HP so it's not like an allam mola wish but it's a decent amount of Health still good good to have a wish passer gargan acle is a great one because as I mentioned corvite right so defog corvite is not super common but it's on around 20% of teams and a lot of bulkier teams as well which getting Stealth Rock up is very very important for so this gargan akle with Sal cure can force out corvite and get up rocks every time which is great because if you have a hazard stack team that can pressure go uh corvite you're not as obligated to run Gango and of course gargan akle just a very strong Pokemon in general blissy not super common but you see it sometimes and over the course of a long game it can get up Stealth Rock On corvite by fishing for Thunder Wave peras as you switch out landras not super common on bulky Hazard stack uh but I do think it is worth mentioning it can work with wish support and you can also run sets to give it a little bit more longevity you can run like leftovers protect on landras which which can lend it some uh some longevity as well now great Tusk not a super common Stealth Rock user mostly because most Hazard Stacks just opt to do away with removal and go boot spam but Tusk is definitely still usable and it can provide a little bit of offensive Firepower for a bulky team that might not have a lot of immediate power something to deal with a threat like raging Boldt for example and not super common but I figured I'd mention it with the rise of dark cry tinon can actually be a pretty decent stealth r uh can also get up Stealth Rock on mold breaker poke on uh Magic bounce Pokemon which is pretty cool not a huge Factor but walls dark C pretty well really annoying support with t-wave knock uh and similarly to Blissey with the combination of thunderwave knockoff and fishing for Paras you can indeed get off rocks on corvite without the need for a Gango uh in an extended game versus say a stall team so now we've gone over Stealth Rock and spikes essential components a hazard stack but what about removal isn't removal something every team needs well not exactly and especially not exactly if you're running a hazard stack team so removal is actually very rare on Hazard stack generally they like to run a heavy duty boots spam team but when you do use it it must be rapid spin now there are some Niche rapid spin users you can use maybe you can make quaal work with some weird specially defensive set to help against dark cry I'm not saying it's impossible uh but generally speaking these are going to be your three spin users Excadrill particularly you only want to really use that if you have a Tyranitar or a sand Setter on your team and the most common will definitely be great Tusk and iron shads great Tusk being the stronger spinner of the two but depending on your team composition maybe you'd rather have an iron shads really just depends uh but typically you will want one of these two and the nice thing is they also do get knockoff which of course Hazard stack really likes uh but as I said most Hazard stack will not run any of these Pokemon and will optt to just run a bunch of heavy duty boots okay so now you've set up your Stealth Rock you've got your spikes how do you prevent your opponent from removing it well first let's let's address the by far best removal blocker that competitive Pokemon has ever seen and that is gulenko now this is a very very strong uh Blocker of removal it prevents defog rapid Spin and Mortal spin all in one slot no other spin blocker or removal blocker in history has been able to do that uh so Gango definitely deserves respect despite what you might think though I actually do not believe Gango is the best spin blocker so one reason for that is if we look at rapid spin right we just saw the three best and most common ones they are all ground types that means Gango is going to be taking a lot of damage if you get red and they also U Tusk and Treads run knock off very very frequently uh which is not great either now the good thing though Gango can run Tera ghost and this might seem odd initially you think well this is a defensive Gango why are we running an offensive terot type so it's actually not uh because you ter a ghost you get rid of that Steel type and can allow yourself to resist and actually tank great Tusk headlong Rush pretty effectively as well as anything in Iron Treads can dish out and knockof is not doing much to you either now you can also run other terot types Terra flying this is kind of just the optimal for spin blocking if you're really really set on spin blocking I would say defensive Terra ghost is the way to go but Gango is actually not as I said I think the best spin blocker defog being pretty uncommon a lot of people have opted to just run a Stealth Rock Setter that can pressure corvite efficiently things like gargan acle or things like Heatran for example uh and then go with a different Ghost type so let's go with another spin blocker dragapult is not a fantastic spin blocker but it is is a fantastic Pokemon and that's the really big deal Hazard stack like every team in gen 9 well every team that's not hyper offense can struggle to fill slots with important things that it needs uh struggles to develop a defensive core struggle to get in priority uh speed so the fact that dragapult does a lot of roll compression offering something that can help against dark cry help against Zama zenta help against sweepers like Dragonite while also being a spin blocker is really what makes it such a popular choice on Hazard stack so it's it's not that it's the best spin blocker but it's that it provides a lot of other good things for a team while also technically spin blocking uh now petrun and sinistra are kind of in the same boat here they're a bit odd but they're really really bulky Now you kind of run Terra ghost on petrun for the same reason you run it on Gango it allows you to take headlong rush really well now interestingly enough petrun can actually tank pretty well headlong Rush from non-offensive Tusk uh and your you're taking very like really not much at all from earthquake from defensive Tusk because of this thing's insane defense uh and of course moves like malignant chain recover Parting Shot hex uh can be pretty good support for a team so Petron and Sinister are both very strong spin blockers the stronger of the two being sinistra because it is not weak to ground moves from great Tusk Treads and Excadrill this thing is probably if you have a rocker that punishes corvite the best spin blocker uh now it's a little bit weird to fit though you may look at things like Gango and and dragapult they provide a lot to the team sinistra what does it provide to the team not quite as much that's the thing it's a really really great spin blocker there's nothing that blocks rapid spin as well but uh it it is a little bit hit or miss this comine set is not providing consistent utility uh it's not providing speed it's not Walling a ton of things reliably so that is kind of the downside but it's a wonderful wonderful spin blocker and as I said current metag game there's a lot of pressure right to put certain things on the team to fit things like priority and faster Pokemon and answering certain threats so sometimes people will be unable to fit a ghost when building a hazard stack and is that okay generally not it's not ideal but if your team is really suited for long-term games and can afford for your opponent to remove hazards once or twice and you can reset them sometimes it's okay to have your spin blocker be a teror ghost Pok P now I don't want you guys to use this as a crutch generally it's really really good to have a real ghost but some of the best at doing this are clefable and all of mola I would say clefable because it's a very nice switch in to Tusk can threaten it very very well and also get up wish passing and also with Terra ghost it deals with Zama zenta too Alam mola similarly uh with regenerator especially it can come in on a lot of hits and take quite a beating and still be okay with coming into spin block and with Terra ghost it also does shut down zamazenta 2 with skull which is really nice side bonus so you can run ter ghosts on quite a few things but probably these two and maybe tinglu would be some of the strongest but as I said generally you do want a real spin blocker a natural Ghost type all right so now you've got your Stealth Rock up you've got your spikes up and you've prevented your opponent from removing hazards but how do you take advantage of these hazards when there are so many heavy duty boots Pok in the tier so that is why you need a strong knockoff user and what makes a knockoff user a strong one well like let's look at knockoff is is any knockoff Pokemon going to do will a clefable be a good no it won't be how about a ogon Wellspring yes that's a pretty strong one how about roaring moon no now you may wonder by strong knockoff user I don't just mean having the strongest knockoff roaring moon has one of the strongest knockoffs uh available in OU but what I mean by a strong knock off user in this context is that it beats the typical knock absorbers and those three are corve gcore and Clif a and you can kind of throw in Skarmory Under the Umbrella of cornite as well what makes darkar cry even though it doesn't have a super strong knockoff really good as a knockoff user is because sludge bomb Ice Beam Dark Pulse take care of gcore clefable and corvite so this dark cry basically can deal with the main knockoff absorbers and things that normally switch into dark cry things like Blissey think maybe a Claire maybe even weirder things like say primarina uh oky DOI tinglu whatever those are hating getting knocked off and then they'll be taking the full force of the hazards of your team Deoxys not a super strong one since it doesn't do great against corvite uh and especially defensive cabilin wall sets like this uh but it can be a pretty decent knockoff us and definitely can put a lot of pressure on your opponent one of the best being Swords Dance gly score this thing definitely shreds other gly score and uh deals pretty well with clefable as well of course the one thing it does struggle with is corvite and Skarmory the iron defense sets that being said you just have a Pokemon on your team that takes advantage of them uh if they're defog they're probably not iron defense so you can beat defog sets by just stacking up Swords Dance and if they are iron defense you just have something in the back that takes advantage of them something like say a dragapult which can come in and be immune to body press and threaten with things like Wisp and hacks and dragon darts and all that also just a very very good Pokemon into bulk your teams since it can't be status iron Valiant is another great one it its ability to run mixed sets with knockoff makes it almost impossible to switch into longterm with hazards if you think about typical switchins to iron Valiant uh really nothing is going to be able to take this on long term I mean imagine say something like a toxapex you knock it off the first time it comes in then the next time you probably kill it with a depending on the set a moonblast into a thunderbolt for example and you also generally want to run Tera fairy with Max special attack investment on these sets because you do want to beat those good knock absorbers clefable glcore don't really care about being knocked uh so you tear a fairy moonblast and you can two shot almost all of them meow Scara is a particularly famous one I like Terra fire on these guys just to deal with Moltres but some people like offensive terot types as well and you run triple axle which uh can deal pretty well with glcore uh and does a very good chunk to clef AEL flower trick as well does quite well there and you may say well this isn't beating corvite and you're kind of right but triple axle will do a good amount and with u-turning on Stealth Rock uh over the course of a long game you can definitely beat corvite down with this Wellspring is a pretty good one as well so it's obviously incredibly powerful and uh whatever was switching in on it is not going to like taking a knockoff with full hazards up now that being said notice everything else on this list has had heavy duty boots Wellspring cannot run that so if you're going to run Wellspring as your knock Pokemon and don't get me wrong it's great at knocking off you're going to need a Tusk you're going to need to be one of the hazard Stacks that does not bam heavy duty boots but instead goes the Tusk route and that can be sometimes not the most fun thing weile another really strong one obviously with Terra ice triple axle you're dealing fairly well with corvite and clefable and gcore and you can knock everything else now the one thing it does struggle with even with full hazards up is alla mola so you'll need to account for that in your building ogre Pon another classic uh this guy with SD terrass Ivy cut can do pretty well into glcore and clef able and it can urn on corvite and slowly chip it down does struggle a little bit with corvite but overall it's a pretty decent knockoff uh strong knockoff user now for some more Niche ones we've got Tornadus uh the main one it struggles with is gly score especially if especially defensive there are workarounds to deal with that uh you can run for instance nasty plot over U-turn making this a very very strong against putting up pressure on bulkier teams Scizor is another interesting one not a super common one but with Swords Dance you can boost up and threaten corvite and and clef AEL and glcore pretty well uh generally you don't want to run this on a bulkier hazard stack because it doesn't last super long but it can help against your uh improve your hyper offense matchup and with wish support uh you can make it more consistent against bulkier teams mammo swine is one I think really deserves respect as well well being able to Terra ice icicle crash fish for flinches against things like corvite uh and obviously it it totally crashes through glcore and clefable and being able to knock otherwise is really really strong and in the current metag game I just think Mamoswine doesn't really get enough respect uh deals pretty well with raging bolt uh hits roaring moon with really strong priority uh and even with thick fat and a combination of an ability like say Tera fery you can actually switch in and have it deal with gouging fire which is a pretty cool little attack as well Hoopa Unbound once again a kind of a more Niche one but pretty good uh with knockoff psychic noise Thunderbolt drain punch if this thing is knocking off things with hazards up uh you are in good shape psychic noise is pretty well shutting down a clef AEL and glcore and uh you can really really do a good job otherwise with things like the drain punch for King Gambit Thunderbolt for corvite overall just a really really strong knockoff user the downside of a lot of these more Niche picks being that they don't provide as much utility whether defensively or with speed uh as as a lot of these other stronger more common options but still deserves some respect and Okie DOI this has been getting more popular lately pretty good into dark cry which is one of its main benefits but also uh really effective against King Gambit and with bulk up sets it can really really threaten and honestly uses setup fodder a lot of the time things like clef AEL gcore and corvite uh and after and your opponent will be able to switch into something that threatens at one point but you can knock it off things like say Zapdos being a common answer that hates getting knocked off uh things like a say a gallerian slow King right trying to come in and hit a psychic move it's not going to like a boost to knockoff so overall oky do a little bit more of a strange pick and definitely not as strong of a knockoff user as some of these earlier things things like iron Valiant Meara a dark cry but it's still an option when you have a team that produces long games like bulky Hazard stack often does your opponent is probably going to be free to set hazards as you set hazards uh since you're probably running a heavy duty boot spam Hazard stack it's important to have a knockoff absorber so you don't lose this war of attrition now this Pokemon needs to have two qualities it needs to be good at taking the actual hit of knockoff as well as being okay with losing its item uh this doesn't describe very many Pokemon so we have a very short list of good knockoff absorbers first one being clef able obviously magicard kind of has its own built-in heavy duty boots and it takes knockoff very well right it resists dark it's fairly physically bulky and it just happens to match up well into a lot of the common knockoff absorbers things things like iron Valiant meow Scara dark cry now it doesn't match up fantastically into those because it is still a clef able right these stats aren't incredible and OU is full of really high based stat total Pokemon but it is still definitely one of the top knockoff absorbers corvite being fantastic as well a lot of sets you can run on this Brave Bird you know Iron defense defog sets whatever uh generally you don't want to run defog on a hazard stack but uh it is a very very effective knockoff absorber so that's uh that's good one as well Skarmory similarly uh basically just does what corve does really good knockoff absorber the combination of being flying so it's immune to almost all types uh or sorry immune to all hazards immune to all hazards and also having that Steel type so it doesn't take the typical 25% from rocks that flying types do makes all three of these really effective gcore I would say without a doubt the best knockoff absorber uh once he gets that to toxic orb established with protect it really doesn't care anymore you can knock it off you can do whatever it doesn't mind so very very strong here the one part of gcore that doesn't make it as great as maybe some others or uh some could argue it's not the best is because it is still four times weak to ice and a lot of the best knockoff users do have ice coverage things like meow Scara weile dark cry uh I will say though with terara you can deal with that pretty effec itively still which does make you vulnerable to spikes if you switch into say a water type or something but overall glcore can still shut down a fair amount of knockoff users uh and make it quite effective in that role now another one very Niche but I figured I should bring up some sticky hold users a hydrael here heavy duty boots and sticky hold so your actually your item cannot be removed is pretty nice and with Terra steel it can take on a lot of common knockoff users now something that's worth noting is that you do have to teror this often to be a good knockoff absorber you know it really does not enjoy taking ice moves and a lot of knockoff absorbers do have that iron Valiant can pressure this just a lot of knockoff Pokemon uh really honestly kind of shred hydrael until you Terra which is not a great situation to be in so that's why I don't consider this one of the best but it can work on very C certain very very bulky typically teams gastron as well once again I really don't advise it I don't think it's very good but in Niche situations it can work and then an honorable mention here regenerator Pokemon so because you have regenerator it's not nearly as good as Magic Guard but that regen can kind of be as if you're ignoring hazards as you come in because you can regenerator off all that damage from Stealth Rock and spikes not ideal but sometimes in gen 9 you've got to go with things that are not ideal because you know you can't have everything you want on a team right uh so maybe you can on occasion use physically defensive regenerator Pokemon uh as your knockoff absorber now let's take a look at some common supporting Pokemon so these don't fulfill any particular role on Hazard stack but they often find their way onto Hazard stack teams just because of that they work really well with the play style or happen to work well with a lot of the Pokemon that are typically on Hazard stack one is gadge so this is often a really good Pokemon to have when you're running a main spin Blocker of something like a Terra ghost clefable or alola Skeletor is a terrible spin blocker especially because the best sets do run specially defensive wisp you're getting really destroyed by knockoff you're getting really destroyed by earthquake so it's kind of a terrible um spin Blocker in general but it can be there in a pinch which is why I recommend you run it with another spin block Locker or something like uh a Terra ghost all over clefable but the reason it's good on Hazard stack is mostly just because Hazard stack being slow paced and often a little bit um and often can struggle against more offensive setup heavy play Styles Skeletor can stop that with unaware and being specially bulky and having wisp can cover a very wide range of sweepers with Tera uh so it's kind of just nice to have that button sitting in the back that you can Tera and get out of any scary sweeper situation Garian slow King really good common boots user really nice specially defensive support and often times as I was going through those knockoff users I said well it struggles against this like say weile right really great knockoff absorber but it can't really deal with all of mola even with full hazards up knockoff is doing like 20 you're not doing enough well that's where slow King comes in with future sight you take your knockoff user and bring it to the next level there is nothing that can deal with full hazards a knockoff user and a future sight uh so you basically ensure against bulk of your teams that you're going to crack them open King Gambit's a king Gambit it's really good uh it enjoys Hazard ship uh it deals well with uh a lot of those sweepers kind of the same thing I said about durge having a strong Sucker Punch can help limit a lot of those setup sweepers that typically threaten bulkier more passive Hazard stack teams so King gam is just a nice Pokemon to have mandibuzz kind of a similar situation to Skeletor in the sense that it can really deal with a lot of setup especially physical setup just being so incredibly bulky and having iron defense Foul Play and toxic really nice thing for hazard stack to have gouging fire just with its incredible defense uh and it really enjoys Hazard chip and can also run dragon tail sets so these have been more popular lately and it fits really well on Hazard stock because you got a Pokemon that provides decent defensive utility uh and can also kind of phase which of course Hazard stack loves and the next one would be zenta typically Roar sets although a lot of zenta sets can work well on Hazard stack kind of in the same light of mandibuzz can really help against those physical setup sweepers and especially with Roar really does enjoy Hazard support here is an example I made a fairly standard Hazard stack which shows some common Pokemon uh effectively formed now I want to emphasize that standard is not necessarily optimal even with a play style with such well defined roles as bulky Hazard stack so remember to be creative and find unique Pokemon that can satisfy the roles of Hazard stack and it might be the Innovation that takes your team to the next level and now that being said let's take a look at this standard example just to give you an idea how all these moving Parts work together so starting with my spikes user I have a Skarmory here now the one thing I mentioned about Skarmory is that it is only has body press meaning it is really really weak to Ghost types so especially Gango why we see King Gambit here um but also dragapult especially whisp sets of dragapult are generally really rough for Skarmory so I decided to pair it with the Stealth Rock user of gargan akle especially with Tera water this can shut down Gango and it's a fantastic switch into dragapult you can run leftovers uh I think heavy duty boots is pretty good as well really depends on preference but just because gargan akle often stays in for so many turns at once uh you can kind of switch it around and see what uh see what works better in practice now this also pressures corite which is great so having salt cure means that this team can effectively pressure corvite without the need for a Gango which allows a spin Blocker of dragapult so this although not the best spin blocker this team's pretty bulky could get up hazards multiple times if it really needed to and this also gives the team some speed uh which is very very nice and also works quite well with this next Pokemon SD glcore so this is going to be my knockoff user of the team um SD protect knockoff facade now this is a really strong glcore set What walls this longterm pretty much unaware Pokemon corvite and Skarmory and what did we say corvite and Skarmory are weak to dragapult so that's why these two are really strong core glcore the only thing that really can deal with it and is okay with this thing setting up is cor ofite and skarmy with iron defense and then you can go into dragapult to take advantage of those now as support I have Garian Slowking here mostly as a fairy resist and as a pivot now we do technically have Skarmory but that is not a real fairy resist at all if we're being honest and the rest of the team is fairly passive doesn't deal well with setup and is a little bit weak to Golden go so having King gabit as the last slot gives us really strong priority move uh some setup to be threatening in the back and uh just some Aid against those more offensive teams that threaten to overwhelm this bulky core better suited for long-term games hope you guys enjoyed the video please subscribe like and leave a comment if you did and I'll see you guys next time