Christmas - Delko     
IntroductionWhat is a better way to wish merry Christmas then by presenting a Hail team? :) Originally I wasn't going to post this RMT just yet since I was planning on using it during the Smogon Tournament #8, but I've noticed that this team has been passed around alot, which makes it lose its element of surprise and with that being one of the biggest reasons of it's success, it just doesn't work out anymore the way it used to. Besides, this team has been the example team for the Hail guide I'm writing for about a month now so people had access to it anyway. So yeah, I'm retiring this team. Mainly because I want to see if it has reached its potential or if there is something that could make it "better". As I mentioned before this team is the example team of the BW Hail guide, so I want it to be as good as possible. First of all, before we start, I would like to thank Mynism, who has helped me tremendously with building this team, by playing with it to see what the weak points were (I would do it myself by I absolutely fail at laddering). He even managed to get a good leaderboard score out of it as well. Peaking high on the leaderboard, as well as winning several tournament battles (albeit with his own version of the team which has some minor differences). I guess you can call this a joint RMT if you will. I would also like the give a shout-out to everyone at #Benelux for their support. No lack of creativity there! Oh, and Stunt and Noodlez, I hope you post your awesome Hail team anytime soon as well ;) So about the team then. The main idea was to build a team based around a Kyurem sweep. All team-members support this idea in one way or the other, but once the team was finished we noticed that not only Kyurem, but all the pokemon on the team are able to pull some sort of sweep off. Or just plain Toxic stall. Me and Mynism like to be creative and you will definitely notice that these pokes will have out-of-the-box ideas, wether it's in the moveset or something as seemingly unimportant as an EV-spread (again a big thanks to Mynism here who helped me come up with some of these). Now, enough with the chit-chat, let's take a closer look at the team: The Team
Abomasnow @ Leftovers No surprise here cause Abomasnow is the obligatory factor for a Hail team. Many different sets were used before we ended up with this one. And with the new usage statistics showing Dragonite to be the most used pokemon we eventually ended up with a full physical set to have a strong Ice Shard as back-up against Dragonite and similar threats. Seed Bomb might look weird when Abomasnow has access to the much more powerful Wood Hammer, but we really disliked the recoil and Seed Bomb ended up being just as good anyway. Protect and Leech Seed are somewhat standard, but they are useful for scouting etc and perhaps healing my other pokes a bit. Max attack is to make Ice Shard as strong as possible and 188 HP EV's give maximum Leftovers and Leech Seed recovery. The remainder were dropped in speed so Abomasnow can outspeed the likes of Jellicent, Tyranitar, etc. Ironically enough, this is the exact same set I ran in Gen 4; so the classics still work ;)
Kyurem @ Leftovers Custom made Kyurem set and the so called "star of the team". Kyurem is actually pretty underrated and when people see it they automatically assume it's a choiced set, as those are the most common. Therefor Substitute often provides us with the element of surprise. Thanks to Kyurem's more then decent bulk it's actually not that hard to get a Substitute up. Weaker, resisted attacks as Scald or Volt Switch won't even break the Sub. As for as moves go we went with the moves that would give the best possible coverage with dual STAB moves and the shaky Focus Blast, this allows Kyurem to hit everything for at least neutral. Pressure is also very nifty, draining low PP moves as Gyro Ball and Fire Blast in barely 4 turns. The HP EV's give 405 HP so Kyurem can make 101 Subs and switch into SR 4 times without dying. Enough Speed to outspeed Lucario, Dragonite etc. The rest is dropped in special attack to make Kyurem able to hit as hard as possible. There aren't a lot of pokes that can safely switch into Kyurem cause it hits like a truck. It has saved my ass so many times and it's definitely one of my favorites pokes to use atm.
Heatran @ Leftovers Heatran is here to deal with the annoying Steel-types that Kyurem cannot best; Jirachi, Scizor etc. It also handles Volcarona and Sun teams in general and provides me with a good enough check for stuff like CM Latias, who I just can Roar away until I have a more favorable matchup. Heatran also sets up the all-so-important Stealth Rock and provides me with a phazer.The moves are pretty standard but since Protect is pretty redundant in the Hail I opted for Earth Power instead to hit opposing Heatran, Tentacruel, Ninetales etc pretty hard. A bit more speed EV's then the standard variant so we can outspeed opposing ones, which can be useful on certain occasions.
Tentacruel @ Black Sludge Blizzard Tentacruel is cool! All puns aside, Tentacruel is the obvious spinner of the team. With Kyurem and Abomasnow being weak to SR, this isn't unappreciated. But what's perhaps even more important is Toxic Spikes. These nasty venomous entry hazards make sure Kyurem can get past specially defensive walls as Blissey and Chansey. It should also be said that unfortunately when the Hail is up, Jirachi can actually flinch Heatran to death, but luckily we also have Tentacruel in the wings who can hopefully get a burn or even a freeze off. Again, his moveset is fairly standard with the exception of Blizzard over Protect or Venoshock. This is quite the surprise for Dragons and Grass-type that try to use Tenta as set-up fodder. Btw, why use Hail when not abusing it, right? we went with a bit more speed then the usual set though, this way Tentacruel can get a quick Spin off before he dies, it also allows him to outspeed Dragonite and hit it with Blizzard. Rain Dish as the ability makes it easier to combat Rain teams.
Reuniclus @ Life Orb I <3 Reuniclus. With her typing and immunity to residual damage she makes one of the best pokes to use to tank hits from those physical powerhouses as Terrakion or Conkeldurr and to sponge the occasional Outrage. And when the opportunity arrises, set a a couple of Calm Minds and sweep. we could have gone with other defensive walls here, but with Magic Guard preventing residual damage (including Hail) Reuniclus was just to good to ignore. She is also a key weapon when facing stall teams. Not much to say about the moves and stuff since it's pretty standard, but hey it works, so no need to change it. Psyshock over Psychic in case I need to do a CM war. The small amount of speed EV's also helps with CM wars with opposing Reuniclus.
Conkeldurr @ Leftovers Last but not least we have Conkeldurr. Fixing certain weaknesses like his capability of taking Rock attacks that the rest of the team despise. The moveset is yet again, fairy standard but effective nonetheless. Priority Mach Punch is the main reason we preferred Conkeldurr over other Fighting types as Machamp or Hariyama. That and Guts of course, there is nothing more satisfying then abusing status the other way around. We went with a slightly bulkier EV spread here so he can take hits better. Even without max attack, he still hits hard enough. Conkeldurr makes a decent sweeping pair with Reuniclus and most of the time it's one of them that gives me the necessary edge in battle. Importable |