A Hail Team that doesn't Suck.

[Scarlet Spyder]

Okay so I've been playing my Hail team for quite some time now and its had its ups and downs. I won a lot of games when Garchomp was legal but now its tough dealing with the new metagame with Platinum changes. Of course, these changes are welcome on my side too. So here we go.

Note: This is for Wi-fi battles, but I do have access to Platinum.

Overview:

Abomasnow @ Leftovers
Snow Warning
Sassy Nature
Evs: 252 HP / 84 SpA / 172 SpD
~ Wood Hammer
~ Blizzard
~ Leech Seed
~ Protect

Abomasnow is the starter of the team to get hail going. I took the speed EVs from the analysis and pumped them into his Special Defense so it can take special hits well. This thing shrugs off Ice Beams, Surfs, and Thunderbolts quite easily. Protect is to scout, Leech Seed is just a great move in general. Other two moves provide dual-STAB. This thing destroys all opposing bulky waters too.

Heatran @ Choice Scarf
Flash Fire
Mild Nature
EVs: 20 HP / 252 SpA / 236 Spe
~ Fire Blast
~ Earth Power
~ Dragon Pulse
~ Explosion

I didn't bother trying to get HP Ice so I am using Dragon Pulse. This set gets the best coverage and is pretty standard. It covers my team's fire weakness quite well and is definitely able to get Flash Fire boosts because of this. Not much else to say except it fits in perfectly with my team.

Vaporeon @ Leftovers
Water Absorb
Bold Nature
EVs: 188 HP / 252 Def / 68 SpA
~ Surf
~ Blizzard
~ Wish
~ Protect

A pretty standard Wisher. Vaporeon also covers my Fire weakness and counters a lot of big threats to my team. It can counter Heatran, Infernape, and other various threats. Blizzard to abuse the hail and Wish/protect for instant healing. Protect is great for scouting and adding up hail damage too. Wish support is great on this team because most of my Pokemon are bulky but lack healing moves.

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Pressure
Bold Nature
252 HP / 220 Def / 36 Spe
~ Discharge
~ Heat Wave
~ Roar / Light Screen/ Thunderwave/ Toxic ?
~ Roost

I needed a Scizor counter and Zapdos definitely fit the bill. I am using discharge for the Paralysis because my team is rather slow. I am still looking for a Zapdos with HP Grass but for now I have Roar. Zapdos is great for helping with my Fighting weakness while also retaining bulkiness with Roost. It has so many resistances that help with the Hail team so it usually comes out early. I need help with a final move to put on it though.

Donphan @ Leftovers
Sturdy
Impish nature
Evs: 252 HP / 6 Atk / 252 Def
~ Earthquake
~ Ice Shard
~ Rapid Spin
~ Stealth Rock

I needed something to set up Stealth Rock and something to spin away rocks. Donphan was perfect. I recently started using him and he's been great. He's able to come in on predicted Stone Edges and set up Stealth Rock against other grounds. Ice shard rapes dragons trying to DD on me. For my hail team its important to keep up hail but Tyranitar can sometimes ruin it. Donphan is a great T-tar counter (physical sets at least) and Rapid Spin makes sure Abomasnow and Zapdos don't lose a quarter of their health upon entry.

Mamoswine @ Life Orb
Snowcloak
Naughty Nature
EVs: 252 Atk / 20 SpA / 236 Spe
~ Blizzard
~ Ice Shard
~ Earthquake
~ Superpower

This thing is a beast. And I think that might be an understatement. This is probably the only true sweeper on my team but he cleans up well. Mixmamo is so unexpected that it usually scores a kill with Blizzard. Peoople try to absorb Earthquakes with Gliscor but end up getting OHKO with Blizzard. First 3 moves provide Stab and priority but Superpower is there mainly for Blissey, Snorlax, and Bronzong (whom otherwise walls me hard). Here's a recent battle on Wi-fi.

Gliscor used Earthquake!
It missed!
Mamoswine used Blizzard!
Gliscor Fainted

Okay so thats my team. All suggestions are welcome as long as they have good reasoning.

Right now I am having trouble with Sleep. I have nothing to absorb sleep so it can really harm my team. Breloom hurts my team a lot but I've got 2 Ice Shards and Heatran to deal with it.

 

[Matthew]

Very solid team, and since no one bothered to rate this team, I'll take it upon myself to do just that:

Abomasnow @ Leftovers
Snow Warning
Sassy Nature
Evs: 252 HP / 84 SpA / 172 SpD
~ Wood Hammer
~ Blizzard
~ Leech Seed
~ Protect

Abomasnow is the starter of the team to get hail going. I took the speed EVs from the analysis and pumped them into his Special Defense so it can take special hits well. This thing shrugs off Ice Beams, Surfs, and Thunderbolts quite easily. Protect is to scout, Leech Seed is just a great move in general. Other two moves provide dual-STAB. This thing destroys all opposing bulky waters too.

I've seen a lot of Abomasnow leads at this one is the somewhat "generic" one. I can see that it's a mixed attacker and that's fine, but Substitute could help you with protecting against status and can then "sub-Stall"

Heatran @ Choice Scarf
Flash Fire
Mild Nature
EVs: 20 HP / 252 SpA / 236 Spe
~ Fire Blast
~ Earth Power
~ Dragon Pulse
~ Explosion

I didn't bother trying to get HP Ice so I am using Dragon Pulse. This set gets the best coverage and is pretty standard. It covers my team's fire weakness quite well and is definitely able to get Flash Fire boosts because of this. Not much else to say except it fits in perfectly with my team.

I know everyone slaps Scarf on Heatran and calls it a day, but I was thinking that since you lack a very "hard-hitter" special attacker replace Scarf with Specs and then you're able to 2HKO a blissey with flash fire boost, and since this is a hail team that would greratly help you.

Vaporeon @ Leftovers
Water Absorb
Bold Nature
EVs: 188 HP / 252 Def / 68 SpA
~ Surf
~ Blizzard
~ Wish
~ Protect

A pretty standard Wisher. Vaporeon also covers my Fire weakness and counters a lot of big threats to my team. It can counter Heatran, Infernape, and other various threats. Blizzard to abuse the hail and Wish/protect for instant healing. Protect is great for scouting and adding up hail damage too. Wish support is great on this team because most of my Pokemon are bulky but lack healing moves.

Looks pretty standard though you usually want to max vaporeon's HP so remove some EV's from SpAtk and put them in health. Otherwise great.

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Pressure
Bold Nature
252 HP / 220 Def / 36 Spe
~ Discharge
~ Heat Wave
~ Light Screen
~ Roost

I needed a Scizor counter and Zapdos definitely fit the bill. I am using discharge for the Paralysis because my team is rather slow. I am still looking for a Zapdos with HP Grass but for now I have Roar. Zapdos is great for helping with my Fighting weakness while also retaining bulkiness with Roost. It has so many resistances that help with the Hail team so it usually comes out early. I need help with a final move to put on it though.

Life Orb Gyarados causes absolute hell for you, if you don't have rocks down and he is allowed to get a Dragon Dance in, you're taking some serious damage. Vaporeon might be able to shrug off Water Attacks but it won't take repeated Earthquakes or Stone Edges.
My suggestion is too slap Scarf on Zapdos so you can outrun it after a Dragon Dance and kill it.

You will need to max the Speed Ev's 136 too give you a total of 405 with Scarf remove it from either Health Or Defense. Sorry if that will be troublesome for you to do.

Donphan @ Leftovers
Sturdy
Impish nature
Evs: 252 HP / 6 Atk / 252 Def
~ Earthquake
~ Ice Shard
~ Rapid Spin
~ Stealth Rock

I needed something to set up Stealth Rock and something to spin away rocks. Donphan was perfect. I recently started using him and he's been great. He's able to come in on predicted Stone Edges and set up Stealth Rock against other grounds. Ice shard rapes dragons trying to DD on me. For my hail team its important to keep up hail but Tyranitar can sometimes ruin it. Donphan is a great T-tar counter (physical sets at least) and Rapid Spin makes sure Abomasnow and Zapdos don't lose a quarter of their health upon entry.

This pokemon is fine

Mamoswine @ Life Orb
Snowcloak
Naughty Nature
EVs: 252 Atk / 20 SpA / 236 Spe
~ Blizzard
~ Ice Shard
~ Earthquake
~ Superpower

This thing is a beast. And I think that might be an understatement. This is probably the only true sweeper on my team but he cleans up well. Mixmamo is so unexpected that it usually scores a kill with Blizzard. Peoople try to absorb Earthquakes with Gliscor but end up getting OHKO with Blizzard. First 3 moves provide Stab and priority but Superpower is there mainly for Blissey, Snorlax, and Bronzong (whom otherwise walls me hard). Here's a recent battle on Wi-fi.

Gliscor used Earthquake!
It missed!
Mamoswine used Blizzard!
Gliscor Fainted

Mix-Swine is really cool. Nice

Hope I helped a little

 

[MetaNite]

How does your team bennefit from hail? It looks to me it looses more than it gains.

3 of your Pokemon lose leftover recovery, and the only real good thing other than Blizzards perfect accuracy is that Vaporeon no longer needs those SpA Evs. They were to kill Garchomp, but now that he's gone you get dump them into HP. Blizzard having more power than Ice Beam means you don't even need to put some in for Salamance.

Donphan seems sort of out of place. I think Restalkin' Rotom-Ice dude with Blizzard would be cool in place of it. If you really need Stealth Rock, Heatran can provide it. With all the ice attacks, you may not need much dragon coverage anyway.

I think this team would be a lot better if you forgot Abomasnow. Other than this, I think you've built yourself I good standard team.

 

[Scarlet Spyder]

How does your team bennefit from hail? It looks to me it looses more than it gains.

3 of your Pokemon lose leftover recovery, and the only real good thing other than Blizzards perfect accuracy is that Vaporeon no longer needs those SpA Evs. They were to kill Garchomp, but now that he's gone you get dump them into HP. Blizzard having more power than Ice Beam means you don't even need to put some in for Salamance.

Donphan seems sort of out of place. I think Restalkin' Rotom-Ice dude with Blizzard would be cool in place of it. If you really need Stealth Rock, Heatran can provide it. With all the ice attacks, you may not need much dragon coverage anyway.

I think this team would be a lot better if you forgot Abomasnow. Other than this, I think you've built yourself I good standard team.

I can see where you are coming from. Blizzards perfect accuracy allow me to run Mixmamo which is such an unexpected threat. Its also used on Vaporeon, as you stated. Another small note: Mamoswine has Snow Cloak (lol).

Although I am only running two Ice Pokemon that "benefit from Hail", any more Ice Pokemon and my team falls apart. It was too hard to make a decent team with three Ice Pokemon and hope to cover my weaknesses well. Also, if you take an overview of my team, you can see that the team is generally very Bulky and even a little stall-like. I favor this style of play and the Hail will be more harmful to my opponent than it is to me. This reason alone, I believe that my team benefits from Hail.

On Donphan: Yes, he seems a bit out of place but not really. He effectively covers my Rock weakness and can spin away opposing Stealth Rocks. His Ice Shard is very valuable now especially, when people love running Salamence, Flygon, and Dragonite. Its hard to take your suggestion of Rotom-Ice because I've already mentioned this is a Wi-Fi team. Different forms do not work on Wi-fi.


Gen. Empoleon: I rarely have trouble with Gyarados because of 1. Stealth Rock and 2. Hail. It may seem weird but the Hail is my best counter for LO Gyarados. I have protect on two of my Pokemon to stall out the Gyarados slowly, and Vaporeon takes hits pretty well. If its at about 25% then my Mamoswine could finish it off easily with Ice Shard. All in all, I usually play around it and most often defeat Gyarados easily.

Other than that, thanks for the suggestions and I will definitely try some of these things out.

 

[IronGross]

How does your team bennefit from hail? It looks to me it looses more than it gains.

3 of your Pokemon lose leftover recovery, and the only real good thing other than Blizzards perfect accuracy is that Vaporeon no longer needs those SpA Evs. They were to kill Garchomp, but now that he's gone you get dump them into HP. Blizzard having more power than Ice Beam means you don't even need to put some in for Salamance.

Donphan seems sort of out of place. I think Restalkin' Rotom-Ice dude with Blizzard would be cool in place of it. If you really need Stealth Rock, Heatran can provide it. With all the ice attacks, you may not need much dragon coverage anyway.

I think this team would be a lot better if you forgot Abomasnow. Other than this, I think you've built yourself I good standard team.

I completely agree-Walrein insted of Heatran would be nice.
I also agree Donphan is a bit out-of-place, as you have Mamoswine.
Light Screen is best for Zapdos IMO.

 

[Scarlet Spyder]

I completely agree-Walrein insted of Heatran would be nice.
I also agree Donphan is a bit out-of-place, as you have Mamoswine.
Light Screen is best for Zapdos IMO.

Walrein > Heatran is just stupid. Heatran is my most reliably counter to several threats and takes fire moves with ease. Walrein is only neutral to fire moves, leaving me with one Pokemon to cover 3 Fire Weaknesses.

Donphan out of place? Mamoswine does not have the defensive capabilties that Donphan has and because they share two moves does not mean I shouldn't use Donphan.

I will take your suggestion for Light Screen on Zapdos because its the only one that seems logical.