This is my first RMT and indeed my first post on these forums so if I've done something wrong I apologise. Anyway.
It was snowing in Canada where I live and therefore I decided to make a hail team. Plus I hadn't seen many and wanted to see if it could be done well. Anyway, this team is kind of a semi-stall team using hail, Toxic, Stealth Rock and burn to inflict damage. The offence I've got comes mostly courtesy of Alakazam and Blizzard spam. Slowbro does his best as well. I've had a decent amount of success with this team and I win a good portion of the time. However I'm eager to see what the community thinks and what suggestions they have for me. This team has undergone considerable changes since its inception as it's now labelled Hail Team 1.6 (1.0 originally), unfortunately I can't remember the changes I've made in any detail so I won't be able to do a team building section.
Abomasnow (Obamasnow) @ Leftovers
Ability: Snow Warning
Calm Nature (-Atk/+SpDef)
EVs: 252 HP / 172 Def / 84 Sp
Leech Seed
Substitute
Protect
Blizzard
Well it wouldn't be much of a hail team without this guy would it? He's your standard SubSeed set and I've found him quite valuable for my team. I originally ran a scarfed set and found it utterly useless. He's often my go to guy against water or electric Pokemon (like the horribly annoying Rotom W), and Leech Seed with Hail up in conjunction with Protect often allows him to take his opponents down to just over half health if he seeds them when they switch in before he's forced to switch out. Blizzard is there to allow him to do some decent damage against a wide range of opponents. However I'm not entirely happy with Substitute. I find that often when I put up a sub the opponent simply switches to something else that sets up all over this guy and I usually switch out to avoid losing then and there, wasting it. I'm considering switching Substitute to Giga Drain so that he's able to do more reliable damage to water Pokemon like Politoad who loves to switch in and remove my hail. I'm also up for suggestions on his EV spread as I'm no good at them and often just use the standard Smogon set. I'm honestly not sure why his speed is where it is and I'm considering putting that into special defence for extra bulk.
Slowbro (D+) @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
Bold Nature (-Atk/+Def)
EVs: 216 HP / 252 Def / 42 SpAtk
Scald
Blizzard
Slack Off
Flamethrower
Full credit goes to kalamadude for this set. I pretty much took it directly from his Sanctuary team which I was playing around with before building this team. All I did was replace Ice Beam with Blizzard because what's the point of a hail team if you can't spam 100% accurate Blizzards all over the place? I really like this Pokemon, he's got great coverage and Flamethrower has good surprise value, plus he's so easy to keep alive with Regenerator. Although I haven't found Flamethrower as useful on this team as it was on Sanctuary so I'm considering replacing it with possibly Thunderwave or Trick/Choice Specs in order to cripple more Pokemon. I use him basically as a physical wall to sponge powerful hits from scary dragon Pokemon and other strong sweepers and retaliate with Blizzard, then switch out and regain some health. Regenerator also allows him to stay quite healthy throughout the battle despite the hail cancelling out the leftovers.
Alakazam (Flashy) @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
Timid Nature (-Atk/+Sp)
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpAtk / 252 Sp
Psyshock
Shadow Ball
Focus Blast
Substitute
Named after Harry Paget Flashman from George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman series for the exquisite facial hair they both sport, Alakazam is my main sweeper and revenge killer. He's extremely quick and powerful and takes no damage from hail or entry hazards which is a blessing for this team. He's got great coverage (although Focus Blast's accuracy leaves something to be desired but that can't be helped) and often scares out opposing Pokemon letting him set up a sub for free and go on a little bit of a sweep, often taking out Pokemon that he wouldn't be able to OHKO. He's scared of both scarfers and Scizor so I keep him away from the metal bug, and play him extremely cautiously when I suspect someone's scarfed. Otherwise he's probably my MVP. Or at least most dangerous player.
Gliscor (S. Harper) @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Toxic Heal
Impish Nature (-SpAtk/+Def)
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 Sp
Earthquake
Toxic
Protect
Taunt
Named after our glorious Prime Minister as they're both overgrown malevolent bats, Gliscor is another of my physical walls and often I lead with him as I feel that putting out Abomasnow first is usually too predictable. However it all depends on what the other team is packing. Taunt is useful against walls or baton passers, while I can Toxic on the switch. Or just Protect if I'm not sure what the opponent is going to do, allowing my Toxic Orb to activate. Protect is also useful when I'm trying to stall out a Pokemon as hail and toxic can add up very quickly. Plus he still gains health in hail due to Toxic Heal.
Tentacruel (No Name) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Rain Dish
Bold Nature (-Atk/+Def)
EVs: 204 HP / 208 Def / 96 Sp
Rapid Spin
Toxic Spikes
Scald
Blizzard
Probably the Pokemon I'm least happy with on this team and therefore undeserving of a proper nickname, Tentacruel is my spinner. However I've not found that he is living up to what he's supposed to do. I often seem to have trouble spinning, and pretty much never have time to set up both layers of Toxic Spikes. Maybe I'm just bad at playing this game. However he is often useful against rain teams. The set is pretty much self explanatory, Scald is there for the burns, Blizzard is there to be spammed as usual. I find he has a lot of overlap in defensive coverage with Slowbro and I'm beginning to think that one of them needs to go, at least temporarily. Suggestions are very much appreciated.
Heatran (Fire Tick) @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
Calm Nature (-Atk/+SpDef)
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpDef / 8 Sp
Lava Plume
Stealth Rock
Roar
Will-O-Wisp
Heatran fulfils multiple roles on the team. He's my phazer, hazard setter and another special wall. Will-O-Wisp is there over Toxic as I already have two Pokemon to spread poison and to cripple physical attackers while Lava Plume is my only attack. I would love to run Air Balloon on him but he and Hail don't get along without Leftovers so that's out of the question. Heatran is my best counter to sun teams, aside from those with Volcarona running HP Ground, but I have no idea how to counter that monster short of Blissey. However recently I've felt that something might need to change for Heatran too as in the last few days he hasn't seemed to effective. I'd kind of like to put Earth Power on him but I don't know what to lose to get it. Possibly Will-O-Wisp? It does make nervous not being able to reliably burn things though.
I really would like a cleric for this team to make it a bit more durable so I'm considering dropping Tentacruel for a Vaporeon with Wish, Protect, Heal Bell and Scald. Celebi has also crossed my mind as a possibility for using Heal Bell, plus then I could have Thunderwave on him as well which would be useful. Unfortunately this leaves me without any spinner at all which isn't good. I've thought about using a Forretress with Overcoat but I'm not sure who I should drop in that case. Anyway, please rate and give suggestions!
My Hail Team
Introduction
Introduction
It was snowing in Canada where I live and therefore I decided to make a hail team. Plus I hadn't seen many and wanted to see if it could be done well. Anyway, this team is kind of a semi-stall team using hail, Toxic, Stealth Rock and burn to inflict damage. The offence I've got comes mostly courtesy of Alakazam and Blizzard spam. Slowbro does his best as well. I've had a decent amount of success with this team and I win a good portion of the time. However I'm eager to see what the community thinks and what suggestions they have for me. This team has undergone considerable changes since its inception as it's now labelled Hail Team 1.6 (1.0 originally), unfortunately I can't remember the changes I've made in any detail so I won't be able to do a team building section.
In-depth
Abomasnow (Obamasnow) @ Leftovers
Ability: Snow Warning
Calm Nature (-Atk/+SpDef)
EVs: 252 HP / 172 Def / 84 Sp
Leech Seed
Substitute
Protect
Blizzard
Well it wouldn't be much of a hail team without this guy would it? He's your standard SubSeed set and I've found him quite valuable for my team. I originally ran a scarfed set and found it utterly useless. He's often my go to guy against water or electric Pokemon (like the horribly annoying Rotom W), and Leech Seed with Hail up in conjunction with Protect often allows him to take his opponents down to just over half health if he seeds them when they switch in before he's forced to switch out. Blizzard is there to allow him to do some decent damage against a wide range of opponents. However I'm not entirely happy with Substitute. I find that often when I put up a sub the opponent simply switches to something else that sets up all over this guy and I usually switch out to avoid losing then and there, wasting it. I'm considering switching Substitute to Giga Drain so that he's able to do more reliable damage to water Pokemon like Politoad who loves to switch in and remove my hail. I'm also up for suggestions on his EV spread as I'm no good at them and often just use the standard Smogon set. I'm honestly not sure why his speed is where it is and I'm considering putting that into special defence for extra bulk.
Slowbro (D+) @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
Bold Nature (-Atk/+Def)
EVs: 216 HP / 252 Def / 42 SpAtk
Scald
Blizzard
Slack Off
Flamethrower
Full credit goes to kalamadude for this set. I pretty much took it directly from his Sanctuary team which I was playing around with before building this team. All I did was replace Ice Beam with Blizzard because what's the point of a hail team if you can't spam 100% accurate Blizzards all over the place? I really like this Pokemon, he's got great coverage and Flamethrower has good surprise value, plus he's so easy to keep alive with Regenerator. Although I haven't found Flamethrower as useful on this team as it was on Sanctuary so I'm considering replacing it with possibly Thunderwave or Trick/Choice Specs in order to cripple more Pokemon. I use him basically as a physical wall to sponge powerful hits from scary dragon Pokemon and other strong sweepers and retaliate with Blizzard, then switch out and regain some health. Regenerator also allows him to stay quite healthy throughout the battle despite the hail cancelling out the leftovers.
Alakazam (Flashy) @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
Timid Nature (-Atk/+Sp)
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpAtk / 252 Sp
Psyshock
Shadow Ball
Focus Blast
Substitute
Named after Harry Paget Flashman from George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman series for the exquisite facial hair they both sport, Alakazam is my main sweeper and revenge killer. He's extremely quick and powerful and takes no damage from hail or entry hazards which is a blessing for this team. He's got great coverage (although Focus Blast's accuracy leaves something to be desired but that can't be helped) and often scares out opposing Pokemon letting him set up a sub for free and go on a little bit of a sweep, often taking out Pokemon that he wouldn't be able to OHKO. He's scared of both scarfers and Scizor so I keep him away from the metal bug, and play him extremely cautiously when I suspect someone's scarfed. Otherwise he's probably my MVP. Or at least most dangerous player.
Gliscor (S. Harper) @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Toxic Heal
Impish Nature (-SpAtk/+Def)
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 Sp
Earthquake
Toxic
Protect
Taunt
Named after our glorious Prime Minister as they're both overgrown malevolent bats, Gliscor is another of my physical walls and often I lead with him as I feel that putting out Abomasnow first is usually too predictable. However it all depends on what the other team is packing. Taunt is useful against walls or baton passers, while I can Toxic on the switch. Or just Protect if I'm not sure what the opponent is going to do, allowing my Toxic Orb to activate. Protect is also useful when I'm trying to stall out a Pokemon as hail and toxic can add up very quickly. Plus he still gains health in hail due to Toxic Heal.
Tentacruel (No Name) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Rain Dish
Bold Nature (-Atk/+Def)
EVs: 204 HP / 208 Def / 96 Sp
Rapid Spin
Toxic Spikes
Scald
Blizzard
Probably the Pokemon I'm least happy with on this team and therefore undeserving of a proper nickname, Tentacruel is my spinner. However I've not found that he is living up to what he's supposed to do. I often seem to have trouble spinning, and pretty much never have time to set up both layers of Toxic Spikes. Maybe I'm just bad at playing this game. However he is often useful against rain teams. The set is pretty much self explanatory, Scald is there for the burns, Blizzard is there to be spammed as usual. I find he has a lot of overlap in defensive coverage with Slowbro and I'm beginning to think that one of them needs to go, at least temporarily. Suggestions are very much appreciated.
Heatran (Fire Tick) @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
Calm Nature (-Atk/+SpDef)
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpDef / 8 Sp
Lava Plume
Stealth Rock
Roar
Will-O-Wisp
Heatran fulfils multiple roles on the team. He's my phazer, hazard setter and another special wall. Will-O-Wisp is there over Toxic as I already have two Pokemon to spread poison and to cripple physical attackers while Lava Plume is my only attack. I would love to run Air Balloon on him but he and Hail don't get along without Leftovers so that's out of the question. Heatran is my best counter to sun teams, aside from those with Volcarona running HP Ground, but I have no idea how to counter that monster short of Blissey. However recently I've felt that something might need to change for Heatran too as in the last few days he hasn't seemed to effective. I'd kind of like to put Earth Power on him but I don't know what to lose to get it. Possibly Will-O-Wisp? It does make nervous not being able to reliably burn things though.
Possible Changes
I really would like a cleric for this team to make it a bit more durable so I'm considering dropping Tentacruel for a Vaporeon with Wish, Protect, Heal Bell and Scald. Celebi has also crossed my mind as a possibility for using Heal Bell, plus then I could have Thunderwave on him as well which would be useful. Unfortunately this leaves me without any spinner at all which isn't good. I've thought about using a Forretress with Overcoat but I'm not sure who I should drop in that case. Anyway, please rate and give suggestions!
