Under the Ice

[IurtaeMont]

So I fell in love with hail after reading in the hail thread and with unova being bloody covered in the white stuff next game, I felt is was only right to try and make a team.

So like any hail team I started with Abomasnow

From there I wanted someone that could abuse the hail, so I picked Kyurem.

I needed a spinner, because ice don't like rocks on the field, so I picked Tentacruel

I needed something that could handle steels, fires, and Fighting types, so I picked Slowbro.

In the hail thread it said you should run one steel and one fighting type.
For the Steel, I wanted a Strong Bullet punch to deal with Rock types and mamoswines. Initially I picked Banded Metagross, but after a few games, I dropped him for Scizor.

For the fighting type, I wanted a fighting type that wasn't rocking a glass jaw, but could still hurt stuff in the face.
I tried Conkeldurr just to see if he'd work and I've been happy with it so far.

Detailed bit:

Abomasnow @ Leftovers
Trait: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Protect
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake
- Wood Hammer

252HP gives him a good bit of bulk and IIRC it's a leftovers number. Protect allows me to get an idea of what I am looking at. Ice Shard and Wood Hammer are his STABs. I picked EQ to catch Fire Types on the Switch in. I normally avoid this unless I am sure the fire type does not carry an Air Balloon.

Scizor @ Choice Band
Trait: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Pursuit
- Superpower

Scizor is my first line of defense against...well anything weak to Bullet Punch or Pursuit. His own Resistance to Bullet Punch, Stone edge, and Neutral to fighting attacks made him seem like an easy choice....after I finally picked him that is.

Kyurem @ Life Orb
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk
Modest Nature
- Substitute
- Earth Power
- Blizzard
- Roost

Subroost Kyurem is my blizzard abuser and he is the main sweeper of the team. Take out anything that threatens him, set up hail and let the fun begin behind that sub. I went with the life orb only because he has roost, otherwise I would have used Leftovers.

Tentacruel @ Black Sludge
Trait: Liquid Ooze
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Def / 16 Spd
Timid Nature
- Toxic
- Rapid Spin
- Scald
- Substitute

Tentacruel, as well as being my rapid spinner, is one of two unlucky bastards I switch into fire and fighting attacks. I went with the Subtoxic set to try and wear down all the non steels that would otherwise threaten Kyurem. I chose Liquid Ooze so my team would have an Official Asorbitch. Any time someone goes to use drain punch, or giga drain, or whatever like that, in comes Tentacruel to punish all of those who would try to heal. He also covers bug type attacks for Slowbro.

Slowbro@ Leftovers
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 244 Def / 16 SAtk
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Flamethrower
- Psyshock
- Slack Off

This is the other member of the unlucky bastards club. This guy's job is to cover the pokemon that Teatacruel cannot handle(steels mostly), but he can also deal with the fight and fire types that tentacruel is to take hits for. Scald and Psyshock are his STABs, Flamethrower is to catch those pesky Scizor/ferro/gene/Skarm switch ins that would otherwise not care about his STABs and Slack off to heal up passive/not so passive damage from hail/things facepunching him.

Conkeldurr @ Leftovers
Trait: Guts
EVs: 252 Atk / 136 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Bulk Up
- Mach Punch
- Drain Punch
- Fire Punch

Conkeldurr is my secondary sweeper, in case I make a horrible mistake and lose Kyurem. I chose Fire Punch over Ice Punch so he can OHKO Scizor and Genesects, since my only other guy with a fire attack is weak to U-turn and because if I need an Ice attack, I got Abomasnow and Kyurem.


Threat list:

So after playing 8 games with this team, the threats that stick out in my mind are:

Alakazam/Reuniclus: my only real way to deal with them is to switch in scizor and hit pursuit. Otherwise, they can heal off anything else and threaten with psychic or Focus Blast/Shadowball.

There are probably a lot more that you guys will be able to notice.

 

[VictimSanctuary]

Hi, IurtaeMont. Unfortunatly I see some more threats that could give your team a hard time.

For starters a scarfed Magnezone hits with the Steel/Fire/Electric Coverage everything but Conkeldurr pretty hard.

Also Volcarona has potential sweeping your team, since you don't use Stealth Rocks. Tentacruel could tank some attacks, but he can't stop him.

SubCM Jirachi (specially the versions with Thunder/Flash Cannon) could give you some trouble as well, because Jirachi checks almost every Pokémon in your team and can set up with merely efforts.

Therefore I'd suggest you first off to play a defensive Heatran over Conkeldurr. He can set up Rocks (which should be on every team imho), check Scizor and Genesect, Jirachi Magnezone and Volcarona (watch out for HP Ground!).

Heatran (F) @ Leftovers Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Stealth Rock
- Roar
- Lava Plume
- Earth Power


Also I would playTentacruel´s set like this.

Tentacruel (M) @ Leftovers Trait: Rain Dish
EVs: 252 HP / 236 Def / 20 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Scald
- Blizzard
- Toxic Spikes
- Rapid Spin


The Sub Set you are running makes more sense on rainbased teams imho. Toxic Spikes are Tentas bread and butter. With Blizzard you could catch many Ferrorthorns on surprise which try to stall your Rapid Spin with Iron Barbs and Leech Seed.


To cover the huge fighting weakness the I also rate Sableye. He is one of the best Pokémon to counter Reuniclus. Only sets with Shadow Ball actually can hit him, while you can cripple him to death with Recover/Nightshade spam. Also you'd get a spinblocker.
Imho you should kick Scizor for this slot. Abomasnow already hits Latias/Latios pretty hard. Sableye takes over the job to counter Reuniclus and Terrakion gets owned by Slowbro.

Sableye (F) @ Leftovers Trait: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 120 Def / 136 SDef
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Recover
- Will-O-Wisp
- Taunt
- Night Shade


Also you could try Swagger over Will-O-Wisp, when you don't like running it with Toxic Spikes support. Substitute would be an option too for some toxic stall.


At last I would play Kyurem like this:


Kyurem @ Leftovers
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 52 HP / 220 SAtk / 236 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Substitute
- Roost
- Blizzard
- Earth Power


You dont need too much EV investment into HP. With this split you can build 101 HP subs which are more than enough. With the speed EV´s you can build your Subs much easier. Leftovers>Life Orb imho. Kyurem's true strengh is to pressure stall your opponents with spamming subs. Blizzard and Earth Power are nice techs to abuse Kyurem´s 130 SpA, but you should focus more on stalling your opponent to pull out his full potential, imo.


I hope this helped you, I wish you success!

 

[bubbly]

Yay Hail ! Cool team, if you've been reading through the Hail thread like you say then you know I use a LOT of Hail, so hopefully we can fix a couple of problems. The first one is the lack of a Ground resist, which means Sheer Force Landorus (or really, any Landorus or powerful Ground attacker) can basically wreck you. Secondly, you look pretty weak to Scizor, and Genesect to a lesser extent. Your only safe switch into Scizor is Tentacruel (Conkeldurr can't afford to switch in because it means it has no chance of setting up later), who loses to common Volt Switch partners and is quickly worn down by residual damage, potentially leaving you with no Spinner.
Tornadus-T issues as well; you have no Flying resistance, meaning it can just spam Hurricanes (even in Hail), while your only method of dealing with it is to switch in after a kill and threaten it with Priority. Sun is also a major issue because you can't beat Fire types in the sunshine at all; Volcarona is practically a 6-0 if the opponent can keep hazards off.
Finally, and probably most importantly, you're crazy weak to Breloom. Even SubPunch Breloom will cause problems, but Technician versions can practically sweep you clean after a little residual damage on Scizor and Conkeldurr.

So, I think the first change you should try is to use a Specially Defensive Skarmory instead of your current Scizor. This gives you a solid answer to Scizor, Breloom, Tornadus-T, and together with Abomasnow and co, a good check to Landorus, while still beating Dragons like Scizor. It does make you a little weaker to CM Reuniclus but overall it should be a worthwhile substitute.

The remaining issue is Sun teams. There are complicated ways to fix the team against them which involve using Heatran and changing a few other members, but I think the easiest solution is just to go with a RestTalk Hariyama (with Low Kick and Whirlwind) instead of Conkeldurr. With Thick Fat and massive bulk you basically completely wall Sun and Genesect, while it lets you abuse hazards quite nicely with the phazing.

Hope that helps, nice team man :)

 

[IurtaeMont]

VictimSanctuary, Oh I knew I had more weaknesses, just didn't know what they were. :P


Anyways, thanks to VictimSanctuary and Bubbly for the advice, I ended up making two more teams based on y'alls advice, Later today, after I put some pokes to the field, I'll edit the OP with the new team I liked the most.