Perplexing Snow (A 5th gen hail team)

Temporal

Changes in Red!

Hello and welcome to my first RMT! I noticed the bandwagon this generation with all the weather. Especially infinite rain. However, I rather not join the bandwagon with all the rain or sandstorm. I rather focus on hail. Hail has been forgotten quite often and is also looked down upon. True it really didn't receive many boosts this gen. Also, the stall tactic with walrein isn't nearly as great as it was last gen since drought ninetales, or drizzle politoed will ruin it. Anyways, I decided to go with a different approach. I am going to focus on stalling with hail (hail stall). I noticed that sandstorm stall is great and all but there are just so many rock, steel, and ground types out there that it gets annoying. Having more than 1 ice type on a team isn't too common so hail was the choice of weather for me. Enjoy and feedback is appreciated=D!

Team at a Glance:

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mandibuzz.png
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Now more in Depth:

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Abomasnow @ leftovers
Giga Drain/Leech seed
Blizzard
Wood Hammer/Hidden Power fire
Ice Shard
Nature:Quiet (To get up my weather if I lead with him as weather vs weather inducer depends on speed. Abomasnow will win against ninetales,politoed,possibly t-tar for putting up weather (not in direct combat of course but it can surely scare off politoed).
Ev:252hp,252def,4spatk (for maximum durability)


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Mandibuzz @ leftovers
Toxic
Roost
Whirlwind/taunt
Brave Bird
Ev:252Hp, 252 spec Def,4 atk
Ability:Overcoat
Nature: Impish
Great staller in my opinion as it doesn't take hail damage and has pretty good bulk as well. It can just roost off damage taken each turn. However, I was thinking of possibly using prankster Mukrow with evo stone. However, hail damage would be a problem for it as no leftover recovery and it'll be worn down a bit quicker. Any opinions here?


th_212.gif

SCizor @ leftovers
Roost
Swords Dance
Bug Bite
Bullet Punch
Nature: careful
Ev:252hp,40atk, 216 spec Def
Thanks to Toasttyrant13 for this set! It should be able to sponge off dragon attacks a bit easier than anyone else on my team can. It does give me 2 4x fire weaknesses which I really dislike but scizor covers a lot more than Gliscor did and doesn't conflict with heal bell anymore


579.png

Reuniclus @ Life orb
Recover
Calm Mind
Pyschic
Shadow Ball
Nature: Modest
Ev:252hp,252spatk,4def
I already have coverage of t-tar with Gliscor, so I thought using reuniclus for its ability of no weather and entry damage, and its ability to counter other stall teams would be great. It also has the power to hit Jellicent hard with shadow ball since some tend to run defensive spread.


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Tentacruel @ leftovers
Toxic Spikes
Rapid spin
Scald
Hail
Nature: Timid
Ev:252speed, 252 Spec Def, 4spatk
Tentacruel provides nice resistances and chances to reset weather if another weather starter is brought in. Allows me to keep up hail. I was thinking of possibly siwtching it to rain dance and changing ability to rain dish from liquid ooze so I can be more versatile and have tentacruel gain more recovery options as it is kind of impossible to recover any damage with hail in effect. Any ideas? Oh yes, tentacruel is a standard spinner for a hail team as stealth rock really hurts mandibuzz and abomasnow. Spikes hurts the rest.


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Blissey @ leftovers
Heal Bell
Softboiled
flamethrower
Toxic/Sesimic Toss
Ev:252hp,252def,4spatk
Nature:impish.

For my 6th slot, I really "loved" the stallrein tactic from last gen where you use sub+protect to heal 24% out of the 25% used for sub.However, with sandstorm,sun and rain so common it doesn't work as well as it did. I also feel a need to add another staller and a special wall also to absorb those draco meteors coming from Hydregion and lati twins. I was thinking of ferrothorn but I don't like the idea of having another 4x fire weakness, so I decided on blissey as my cleric as well as special wall.


Threats:
Mainly Dragons! Hydregion and Latios' Draco Meteor will just sheer through every pokemon here barring Blissey. U-Turn from Hydregion will hit hard on Blissey but Blissey would expect it and heal it off.

Scarf Garchomp -_-. Just annoying but it can be dealth with by prediction. I rather not rely heavily on prediction though

Weather:
Rain Team: Not really a big threat.

Sun Teams: Big threat! They have sheer force usually and don't play around and get straight to business. Tentacruel and Gliscor can not deal with all of them. Advice for sun teams would be appreciated.

Problems:
Lack of SR: I was thinking of replacing tentacruel with Jellicent but then I have a lack of Toxic spikes. I already am lacking stealth rock which I do not like. Suggestions here? *No forretress! Did not work well for me=(*

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated. Also, this is a wi-fi team. Do not suggest Lati twins, forrtress please. Thank you.
 
To get rid of the Mandibuzz, just isn't that great of a poke.
Skarmory
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Moveset:
- Stealth Rocks
- Whirlwind
- Roost
- Brave Bird
Evs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Giving Skarmory Special Defense EVs may seem odd considering Skarmory's low Special Defense. However, this allows Skarmory to take full advantage of his resistances to Dragon-, Ghost-, and Grass-type attacks and his neutrality to most other special attacks to wall any special attacker who can't hit Skarmory for super effective damage. Just an idea for your dragon problems. While setting up stealth rocks in the mean time. Also a scarfed Latios/Latias with draco meteor. Sorry by the way I'm new!
 
Why do you not have Stallrein on your team! Stallrein and Gliscor are a good defensive combo as they both resist each others weaknesses!
 
Stallrein@leftovers
Toxic
Protect
Super fang
Sub

Ice body heals 1/6 of health and in permanent hail it can stall to oblivion. I believe no hail team shouldn't have wallrein. Although your lacking Srocks spikes can work to so froslass can spike, spin block and can hax with snow cloak.
 
You DO know alot of Ttars run a Mix set with Ice Beam now right? Gliscor is NOT a check to TTar even half the time
 
Well I plan on replacing Gliscor with a special bulky Scizor
Scizor @ leftovers
Roost
Swords Dance
Bullet Punch
Bug Bite
Nature: Technician

Thanks to toasttyrant13 for this set!!!

Yeah I noticed many gliscors carrying ice beam which destroys Gliscor-_-...
\

Also, I don't want it to be more than 1 ice type(only having abomasnow as ice). I chose hail as stall as it damages every type except ice, or magic guard/overcoat ability pokemon,

Well the stallrein tactic doesn't work that well this gen though. I might try it though but I don't know.if the opponent has a weather inducer alive it won't work -_-.
 
No one mentioned this, but you're using Heal bell with a poison heal gliscor. Just make sure you dont switch Scor into any statuses while its down.
 
I'm going to be replacing Gliscor and even if it has its status down it can reset it with poison orb as long as it isn't tricked off.

Gliscor is replaced with Scizor. Ya I thought of that so it wasn't the best idea. I think I might replace blissey with a dual screener + heal bell/aromatherapy (Audino or Clefable seem reasonable and unpredictable) Screen support would be very helpful for spinning and laying down. NOt too sure on this and blissey is kinda too frail for my liking for any physical attack.
 
bad post

SRSlammers22 said:
To get rid of the Mandibuzz, just isn't that great of a poke.
Moveset:
~ Whirlwind
~ Roost
~ Brave Bird
Evs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Giving Skarmory Special Defense EVs may seem odd considering Skarmory's low Special Defense. However, this allows Skarmory to take full advantage of his resistances to Dragon-, Ghost-, and Grass-type attacks and his neutrality to most other special attacks to wall any special attacker who can't hit Skarmory for super effective damage. Just an idea for your dragon problems. While setting up stealth rocks in the mean time. Also a scarfed Latios/Latias with draco meteor. Sorry by the way I'm new! Then you can also get a nice standard jellicent set without losing set up move
Click to expand...
did you not see him say "dont suggest latis"? also, thats only three moves, and you didnt say that its skarm until the description.

@OP (original poster) first, something off topic. its ironic that everything that you think will help has a x4 weakness to fire (btw srry for the way im not using caps much, typing w/ dsi). now on topic, not an adition to your team, but a tactic to try is this: since sun teams require ninetails to go out first, if you see ninetails in the team preview, send out tent, predict the switch and send in abam. in the long run it will just annoy, but scares it off for a litte. thats really all i have........

edit: oh shit my bad you said skarm walls the latis. dammit now i look like an idiot.
 
I know everything I come up with that will help has a 2x or 4x weakness to fire lol=p. BUt yeah and tentacruel can change the weather when I predict the switch and I believe tentacruel and ninetales have the same base speed so if it should stay in I can possibly win the speed tie and change the weather reducing the fire power up. =D!

Special bulky scizor works better than skarmory as scizor has actual attacking moves besides brave bird. Also no risk of roosting and facing a fighting weakness or ground one.
 
Can someone comment on these changes and think they will be benefical?

Stalrein @leftovers as mentioned above post *read above the eevee avatar* Stalrein replaces blissey!

I really don't like reuniclus seems like deadweight at times. any other suggestions?
 
regice gets ice body this gen, and the defenses to abuse it.

Regice @ Leftovers
Calm, Ice Body
204 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD / 44 Speed

~ Substitute
~ Protect
~ Toxic
~ Blizzard / Thunderbolt / Ancient Power

or

Regice @ Leftovers
Bold, Ice Body
252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Speed

~ Curse
~ Amnesia
~ Substitute
~ Blizzard / Thunderbolt

i would personally run this over mandibuzz.
 
While this team looks pretty good, there’s a few issues with the EV spreads you might want to change. Tentacruel for example is better off investing HP rather than Special Defense due to its base stats. I’m not sure why Blissey is Impish but it should be Bold, as otherwise you’re weakening Flamethrower.
Tentacruel virtually unable to do anything to Jellicent outside of passive hail damage which is negated by leftovers, as well as Vaporeon and most waters in general. I might swap out Hail for Giga Drain, which allows you to at least dent them and recover HP which Tentacruel really wants given that hail ruins your leftovers.
 
Looks good! I'd just say that Reuniclus NEEDS Defence EVs if you're running that set. He'll get ripped apart from dark attacks otherwise. Or, optionally, you could switch his moveset to: Trick Room, Psychic, Shadow Ball, Focus Blast/Recover. His speeds so poor, he benefits best from a heap of bulk or Trick room.
 
The Giga drain idea seemed nice but this is a wi-fi team and DP doesn't have an iv checked (Pt does but I don't have pt=p). I think Hp Grass would be nice foe Quagsires or perhaps Hp Electric for gyrados and other bulky waters.

Hmm I was thinking of replacing Reuniclus sadly. It just seems as a lose fit. I was thinking of replacing it with Porygon 2 w/ evo stone. Blizz+thunderbolt+recover+ Magic Coat (to reflect back status)
 
Hello

This looks like a good hail team but I've got some suggestions.

First off all you have nothing that enjoys switching into strong physical attackers suck a Terakion and Excadrill. This can be fixed by running Gliscor instead of Mandibuzz. Gliscor will also help you with your Scarfchomp weakness. And it will also be a good counter to the common Body Slam / Iron Head Jirachi and your best answer to opposing CM Reuniclus (you'll win against Psyshock variant if Gliscor hasn't received to much prior damage). The standard set will suffice with the moves Earthquake, Ice Fang, Sword Dance, Protect/ Taunt.

Another suggestion I would like to suggest is using Heatran instead of Scizor. This allows you to still have a Steel-type pokemon to resist Dragon type moves but Heatran also gives you a pokemon with the ability to set up Stealth Rocks and a solid counter to Vulcarona and opposing SD Scizors (most version are the set your using so Brick Break isn't common). I suggest a specially defensive variant with the moves Stealth Rocks, Toxic, Protect, Lava Plume. Of course you could run Roar or Earth Power instead of Toxic since you have Toxic Spikes support from Tentacruel.

As for the minor suggestions my first one will be to use a different EV's spread + nature for Abomasnow, as I found yours the be really ineffective. A quiet nature with a spread of 252 HP, 4 Atk, 252 SAtk would be much more effective. As for the moveset, I found the moveset of Blizzard, Giga Drain, Ice Shard, Substitute to be quite effective.

I would use a bulkier version of Reuniclus on a team like this, as it should be able to sponge hits often. A spread of 252 HP, 252 Def, 4 SDef and a Bold nature will be more beneficial imo. Also use Focus Blast instead of Shadow Ball. Tyranitar is a common Reuniclus counter and with Focus Blast you'll win against most versions, allowing you win the weather war.

Hail is actually a quite redundant move to run on Tentacruel, so I suggest you'd drop it. You could replace it with Hex. This will hit Ghosts which try to block Rapid Spin hard, especially when you have Toxic Spikes set up. Also use a slightly different spread on him. A spread of 252 HP, 240 Def, 16 Spe and a Calm nature will suffice.

Now you have 3 status absorbers on the team, so I think it's a bit redundant to run Heal Bell on Blissey. Instead you could use Wish. This allows you to keep your other pokemon without self-recovering moves healthy (Heatran and Gliscor will enjoy the Wish support). Also since you are running Flamethrower on Blissey, using a Bold nature > Impish is prefered. If you'd like you can also a slightly different EV's spread. With a spread of 44 HP, 252 Def, 120 SpA, 92 Spe Blissey will be able to outspeed and OHKO Scizor and Forretress and 2HKO Ferrothorn and Skarmory. Those mentioned pokemon will often use Blissey as set up fodder to lay down entry hazards, or set up SD's. Forretress might even try to spin and since you don't have a Ghost type having the ability to OHKO him is only an advantage.

I hope this helped and good luck with the team.

(you haven't listed natures on most your pokes, but you'll probably use the "good" ones).

EDIT: ugh, I've tried to make this rate fancy with colors and all, but that didn't work, >.>
 
If you want a replacement for reuniclus, a suggestion would be maybe Latias- bulk, and still decent spA stat, and while she isn't resistant to hail, she provides a helpful fire resistance.
 
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