Note: Not every Pokemon covered here has been tested fully. Just saying.
LC never really had the right Pokemon for Hail Stall. That's a well-known fact. However, a major style of Hail has been ignored a lot over the years of LC: Offensive Hail.
Offensive Hail is very different from just slapping on Scarf Snover or the like onto a team. Offensive Hail is neither hyper offense nor balanced offense, it is a variant of semistall. It revolves around wracking up passive damage, which is an element of stall, while still retaining a lot of offensive presence.
Offensive hail often only has 1 ice type: Snover. However, this one Ice-type is the key focal point of the entire team. Offensive Hail is one of the few styles of play that can face Moguryuu without running insane amounts of priority, making it a great style in the Sandstorm-infested metagame.
So who are the main Pokemon of Offensive Hail?
Sweepers
Snover, the most important member of Offensive Hail, rather obviously. He brings in the permanent hail, checks Moguryuu, and tears down Hippopotas all in one go. He is the central Pokemon of any Hail team, and should not be sacrificedat all costs(unless doing so will guarantee a victory beyond a shadow of doubt). On an Offensive Hail team, Snover's best set is the Choice Scarf set, as it allows it to revenge kill Moguryuu, one of the biggest pains in the neck to almost any team.
Houndour provides valuable priority on an Offensive Hail team, which is very important as offensive Hail teams generally do not have room for a lot of priority. Flash Fire means that Snover is an efficient luring partner for him. With 2 immunities, Houndour is a great choice.
Elekid is another great Offensive Hail sweeper. With a physical set, it provides more valuable priority in the form of QUick Attack, while with a mixed set, it can tear through Sandstorm teams after Snover pulls out the Hail. In the generation shift, Elekid gained Wild Bolt, which while alongwith Hail and possibly other passive damage like LO might make Elekid kill itself fast, it doesn't really matter too much since Elekid is meant to punch holes in teams on an offensive Hail team, not sweep.
Support and Defense
Yabukuron is an overlooked Pokemon that gains its potency under Hail. It can setup Toxic Spikes and/or Spikes, which is very valuable to an offensive Hail team. Toxic Spikes support is very valuable, since Croagunk gets eliminated really easily by an essential component of Offensive Hail: Pururiru.
Spikes support is also good, since Yabukuron will get enough opportunities to setup. If you want to set up hazards, Toxic Spikes/Spikes/Gunk Shot or Return/Rock Blast. Despite Posion's terrible coverage, STAB Gunk Shot is gonna hurt. Also, on support Yabukuron, Balloon is almost a must, as it gives you an excellent switch in to Scarf Meguroko, who will look nab a free KO and +1 Attack with Earthquake. On the forced switch, you can throw up a layer of (Toxic) Spikes, increasing the passive damage and weaking Meguroko when it next comes in.
Pururiru is a must on every offensive hail team(and Snover is too, but that was obvious). It holds offensive hail together, with its ability to stop most physical threats, as well as provide important immunities to Water, Normal and Fighting. Without Pururiru, Offensive Hail would just fall on its face since its very hard to setup passive damage while still having checks to the wide range of things that Pururiru can cover.
So that's it for the main players of Hail, I am considering adding some more Pokemon in the future, tell me if you think they're worth it!
List
1.Chinchou
2.Darumakka
3.Croagunk
4.Onix
Hail Stall Note: Hail Stall is just too hard this Generation, with the addition of Moguryuu and other Sandstorm abuser. For Hail to square off against Sandstorm successfully, it has to maintain offensive tempo while still gatehring free turns to rack up passive damage.
LC never really had the right Pokemon for Hail Stall. That's a well-known fact. However, a major style of Hail has been ignored a lot over the years of LC: Offensive Hail.
Offensive Hail is very different from just slapping on Scarf Snover or the like onto a team. Offensive Hail is neither hyper offense nor balanced offense, it is a variant of semistall. It revolves around wracking up passive damage, which is an element of stall, while still retaining a lot of offensive presence.
Offensive hail often only has 1 ice type: Snover. However, this one Ice-type is the key focal point of the entire team. Offensive Hail is one of the few styles of play that can face Moguryuu without running insane amounts of priority, making it a great style in the Sandstorm-infested metagame.
So who are the main Pokemon of Offensive Hail?
Sweepers
Snover, the most important member of Offensive Hail, rather obviously. He brings in the permanent hail, checks Moguryuu, and tears down Hippopotas all in one go. He is the central Pokemon of any Hail team, and should not be sacrificedat all costs(unless doing so will guarantee a victory beyond a shadow of doubt). On an Offensive Hail team, Snover's best set is the Choice Scarf set, as it allows it to revenge kill Moguryuu, one of the biggest pains in the neck to almost any team.
Houndour provides valuable priority on an Offensive Hail team, which is very important as offensive Hail teams generally do not have room for a lot of priority. Flash Fire means that Snover is an efficient luring partner for him. With 2 immunities, Houndour is a great choice.
Elekid is another great Offensive Hail sweeper. With a physical set, it provides more valuable priority in the form of QUick Attack, while with a mixed set, it can tear through Sandstorm teams after Snover pulls out the Hail. In the generation shift, Elekid gained Wild Bolt, which while alongwith Hail and possibly other passive damage like LO might make Elekid kill itself fast, it doesn't really matter too much since Elekid is meant to punch holes in teams on an offensive Hail team, not sweep.
Support and Defense
Yabukuron is an overlooked Pokemon that gains its potency under Hail. It can setup Toxic Spikes and/or Spikes, which is very valuable to an offensive Hail team. Toxic Spikes support is very valuable, since Croagunk gets eliminated really easily by an essential component of Offensive Hail: Pururiru.
Spikes support is also good, since Yabukuron will get enough opportunities to setup. If you want to set up hazards, Toxic Spikes/Spikes/Gunk Shot or Return/Rock Blast. Despite Posion's terrible coverage, STAB Gunk Shot is gonna hurt. Also, on support Yabukuron, Balloon is almost a must, as it gives you an excellent switch in to Scarf Meguroko, who will look nab a free KO and +1 Attack with Earthquake. On the forced switch, you can throw up a layer of (Toxic) Spikes, increasing the passive damage and weaking Meguroko when it next comes in.
Pururiru is a must on every offensive hail team(and Snover is too, but that was obvious). It holds offensive hail together, with its ability to stop most physical threats, as well as provide important immunities to Water, Normal and Fighting. Without Pururiru, Offensive Hail would just fall on its face since its very hard to setup passive damage while still having checks to the wide range of things that Pururiru can cover.
So that's it for the main players of Hail, I am considering adding some more Pokemon in the future, tell me if you think they're worth it!
List
1.Chinchou
2.Darumakka
3.Croagunk
4.Onix
Hail Stall Note: Hail Stall is just too hard this Generation, with the addition of Moguryuu and other Sandstorm abuser. For Hail to square off against Sandstorm successfully, it has to maintain offensive tempo while still gatehring free turns to rack up passive damage.
