Playing passively against opponents' threats helps to reduce the instability from prediction, and is an effective strategy for knowledgeable players to take full advantage of their advantage.
However, playing passively may give your opponent more opportunities to do dice roll, and such bad way may reduce your winning rate.
In this article, I explain a good way of playing passively with making an opportunity to switch to a Wall Breaker / Sweeper to prevent your opponent from repeatedly doing dice roll.
Bad example of giving dice roll opportunity
Good example of making an opportunity to switch to a Wall Breaker / Sweeper
Using Toxic Wall
Using Leech Seed Grass
Using universal status deteriorate Moves
However, playing passively may give your opponent more opportunities to do dice roll, and such bad way may reduce your winning rate.
In this article, I explain a good way of playing passively with making an opportunity to switch to a Wall Breaker / Sweeper to prevent your opponent from repeatedly doing dice roll.
Bad example of giving dice roll opportunity 
As mentioned earlier, allowing your opponent to attempt to many dice roll without giving you an opportunity to wall break or sweep is a bad passive play.
For example, Miltank + Raikou against Snorlax + Zapdos is an example of bad passive play.
Miltank can check Snorlax, but since Milk Drink's PP is 8 less than Double-Edge's PP, Miltank cannot Milk Drink every time it gets Double-Edge, and must use a move like Growl to save PP.
However, playing like this makes it vulnerable to critical, so if it gives Snorlax the chance to try to break Miltank multiple times, Miltank is likely to break.
And if you switch to Zapdos on Milk Drink or Growl's Turn, Miltank has no choice but to switch out quickly.
If Snorlax do Double Switching, you will be allowing Snorlax to try to break Miltank without giving you a chance to switch in Wall Breaker or Sweeper.
Even if Miltank predicts Double Switch and uses Body Slam, it is hardly a solution, since it will not be able to deal any decent damage to either Zapdos or Snorlax.
To solve this, you need a Pokemon that can deal with both switching to Snorlax and staying with Zapdos.
For example, Miltank + Raikou against Snorlax + Zapdos is an example of bad passive play.
Miltank can check Snorlax, but since Milk Drink's PP is 8 less than Double-Edge's PP, Miltank cannot Milk Drink every time it gets Double-Edge, and must use a move like Growl to save PP.
However, playing like this makes it vulnerable to critical, so if it gives Snorlax the chance to try to break Miltank multiple times, Miltank is likely to break.
And if you switch to Zapdos on Milk Drink or Growl's Turn, Miltank has no choice but to switch out quickly.
If Snorlax do Double Switching, you will be allowing Snorlax to try to break Miltank without giving you a chance to switch in Wall Breaker or Sweeper.
Even if Miltank predicts Double Switch and uses Body Slam, it is hardly a solution, since it will not be able to deal any decent damage to either Zapdos or Snorlax.
To solve this, you need a Pokemon that can deal with both switching to Snorlax and staying with Zapdos.
Good example of making an opportunity to switch to a Wall Breaker / Sweeper
Here are some ways to avoid the bad examples mentioned above.
Using Toxic Wall
Toxic is not only a useful Move in Spikes War, but it's also a useful Move for overcoming bad passive.
Once you've poisoned your opponent, you can put them to sleep just by taking a Turn passively.
Even if your opponent recovers HP with a Move other than Rest, you can still defeat your opponent with Double Switch, or force your opponent to make a Turn to use a Move to recover HP. And you can defeat aggressive Pokemon which doesn't have a Move to recover HP with Toxic alone.
While using a Move which recovers HP or while your opponent's Pokemon is asleep, your opponent's Pokemon cannot do dice roll, and you can safely switch in your Wall Breaker / Sweeper. This allows you to turn into wall break / sweep mode.
As for Rest, be careful of Sleep Count 2.
If you use Rest to go to Sleep, when Sleep Count reaches 2, you will definitely be able to use a Move the next turn. Furthermore, in this state, you will not be able to receive any Status Ailments.
Because a Pokemon in this state is in a good state to start Wall Break or Sweep, be careful. If you don't have a decent Attack Move,
This state becomes easier to create. For example, even a Pokemon like Skarmory which is Snorlax checker can be exploited by Snorlax for making Sleep Count 2.
However, if Sleep is released the next Turn, Toxic will be effective again. You just especially have to be careful how you play from Sleep Count 2 until you put Toxic again.
One thing to care about are Toxic immute Pokemons.
In fact, many Toxic immute Pokemons are good at breaking Stall Team, such as Steelix, Nidoking, Growth Venusaur, and Sword Dance Tentacruel.
The only way to overcome this is with other Moves like Attack Moves. Even a not strong Attack Move like Skarmory's Drill Peck is better than nothing.
If that's not possible, you'll need to either have a stronger checker for that Pokemon (such as Hidden Power Water Zapdos for Steelix), or you'll have to estimate that the usage rate of that pokemon is low and intentionally decide to make your countermeasures thin.
Once you've poisoned your opponent, you can put them to sleep just by taking a Turn passively.
Even if your opponent recovers HP with a Move other than Rest, you can still defeat your opponent with Double Switch, or force your opponent to make a Turn to use a Move to recover HP. And you can defeat aggressive Pokemon which doesn't have a Move to recover HP with Toxic alone.
While using a Move which recovers HP or while your opponent's Pokemon is asleep, your opponent's Pokemon cannot do dice roll, and you can safely switch in your Wall Breaker / Sweeper. This allows you to turn into wall break / sweep mode.
As for Rest, be careful of Sleep Count 2.
If you use Rest to go to Sleep, when Sleep Count reaches 2, you will definitely be able to use a Move the next turn. Furthermore, in this state, you will not be able to receive any Status Ailments.
Because a Pokemon in this state is in a good state to start Wall Break or Sweep, be careful. If you don't have a decent Attack Move,
This state becomes easier to create. For example, even a Pokemon like Skarmory which is Snorlax checker can be exploited by Snorlax for making Sleep Count 2.
However, if Sleep is released the next Turn, Toxic will be effective again. You just especially have to be careful how you play from Sleep Count 2 until you put Toxic again.
One thing to care about are Toxic immute Pokemons.
In fact, many Toxic immute Pokemons are good at breaking Stall Team, such as Steelix, Nidoking, Growth Venusaur, and Sword Dance Tentacruel.
The only way to overcome this is with other Moves like Attack Moves. Even a not strong Attack Move like Skarmory's Drill Peck is better than nothing.
If that's not possible, you'll need to either have a stronger checker for that Pokemon (such as Hidden Power Water Zapdos for Steelix), or you'll have to estimate that the usage rate of that pokemon is low and intentionally decide to make your countermeasures thin.
Using Leech Seed Grass
Leech Seed Venusaur can stay against many OU Pokemon due to its bulkiness, low weakness, and the presence of Leech Seed + Synthesis. Also worth mentioning is Toxic immute (which is especially useful against Cloyster) and excellent checks against Vaporeon and Machamp.
Leech Seed also makes other Pokemon switching in easily, which can be a trigger to go from passive mode to wall break / sweep mode. Access to Sleep Powder also helps it to go to wall break / sweep mode, and it's also useful against Exeggutor which are outspeeded against Venusaur.
It's true that its low PP makes it less suitable for long term game which is liked by Stall Team, but it's great as a midfielder.
In the example mentioned in "Bad example of giving dice roll opportunity", Venusaur can be a direct solution.
At least, there is no problem with doing Double Switch by Snorlax. Although the case of Zapdos staying can be problematic, at least Venusaur is not broken immediately, and if you can put in Leech Seed or Sleep Powder, you can safely switch in even a Wall Breaker / Sweeper like 3 Attack Snorlax.
This is actually a method I adopted with a team I called VenuQuag Offense to mitigate the bad passive tendencies of Quagsire Offense.
Also, if you value better checks against Ground and being able to overcome Weakness to Psychic over access to Sleep Powder, Toxic immute, and better checks against Machamp, you should use Meganium instead of Venusaur.
Note that in the case of Meganium, it's sometimes better to drop even Leech Seed and learn Toxic to counter Pokemon like Exeggutor and Whirlwind Zapdos.
(I've used Meganium in the tournament game and actually won with Toxic / Reflect / Razor Leaf / Synthesys moveset)
Leech Seed also makes other Pokemon switching in easily, which can be a trigger to go from passive mode to wall break / sweep mode. Access to Sleep Powder also helps it to go to wall break / sweep mode, and it's also useful against Exeggutor which are outspeeded against Venusaur.
It's true that its low PP makes it less suitable for long term game which is liked by Stall Team, but it's great as a midfielder.
In the example mentioned in "Bad example of giving dice roll opportunity", Venusaur can be a direct solution.
At least, there is no problem with doing Double Switch by Snorlax. Although the case of Zapdos staying can be problematic, at least Venusaur is not broken immediately, and if you can put in Leech Seed or Sleep Powder, you can safely switch in even a Wall Breaker / Sweeper like 3 Attack Snorlax.
This is actually a method I adopted with a team I called VenuQuag Offense to mitigate the bad passive tendencies of Quagsire Offense.
Also, if you value better checks against Ground and being able to overcome Weakness to Psychic over access to Sleep Powder, Toxic immute, and better checks against Machamp, you should use Meganium instead of Venusaur.
Note that in the case of Meganium, it's sometimes better to drop even Leech Seed and learn Toxic to counter Pokemon like Exeggutor and Whirlwind Zapdos.
(I've used Meganium in the tournament game and actually won with Toxic / Reflect / Razor Leaf / Synthesys moveset)
Using universal status deteriorate Moves
Toxic and Leech Seed are sometimes problematic because there are Pokemon that can nullify them, but there are status deteriorate Moves, such as Flash and Sand Attack, that are effective against any Pokemon.
Such Moves may be able to overcome bad passives against a wider range of opponents.
Shuckle in particular has this potential.
Shuckle is a Snorlax checker, but it's not just a Snorlax checker; it has excellent both physical and special defensive stats, and a Typing with few weaknesses, allowing it to comfortably stay one Turn against a Pokemon like Zapdos.
And since Flash required to check Snorlax also serves as a countermeasure in case it is switched into another Pokemon, the need to predict correctly is reduced.
For example, I did a self testplay with the following team and confirmed that Shuckle may be superior in this aspect. At least, I judged Shuckle to be more stable than Spikes / Toxic / Defense Curl / Rest Forretress.
This is certainly a super specific and specialized example, and I even fathomed my (potentially) opponent's playing habits to optimize my playing, but I think Shuckle is a Pokemon that should be considered for use in more teams.
https://pokepast.es/8c7d0d8f691f6e6f
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen2ou-23055801...
Also, in 2025 SPL, Sand Attack Skarmory was used seleval times.
This is not only a counter to Steelix, but is also effective against other Pokemon, and may be better than Hidden Power Fire which was previously used to counter Steelix.
Such Moves may be able to overcome bad passives against a wider range of opponents.
Shuckle in particular has this potential.
Shuckle is a Snorlax checker, but it's not just a Snorlax checker; it has excellent both physical and special defensive stats, and a Typing with few weaknesses, allowing it to comfortably stay one Turn against a Pokemon like Zapdos.
And since Flash required to check Snorlax also serves as a countermeasure in case it is switched into another Pokemon, the need to predict correctly is reduced.
For example, I did a self testplay with the following team and confirmed that Shuckle may be superior in this aspect. At least, I judged Shuckle to be more stable than Spikes / Toxic / Defense Curl / Rest Forretress.
This is certainly a super specific and specialized example, and I even fathomed my (potentially) opponent's playing habits to optimize my playing, but I think Shuckle is a Pokemon that should be considered for use in more teams.
https://pokepast.es/8c7d0d8f691f6e6f
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen2ou-23055801...
Also, in 2025 SPL, Sand Attack Skarmory was used seleval times.
This is not only a counter to Steelix, but is also effective against other Pokemon, and may be better than Hidden Power Fire which was previously used to counter Steelix.
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