BW2 Playstyles: Discussion Thread

[Ryanor]

In my opinion hail is the worst playstyle nowadays. If you want to take advantage of this weather you will be in trouble because of the entry hazards, mainly Stealth Rock. You need too much support to cover the weakness of these teams. Besides, you hardly can find a spinner that fits in this kind of teams because Tentacruel is far from being as good as it's in rain meanwhile Forretress and Donphan have to deal with hail removing the recovery that leftovers provide. Moreover in the current metagame there are many threats that can sweep those teams such as Keldeo, Scizor, Breloom, Kyurem-B...

I like weatherless balance and sand offense. "Double sand" deserves a mention too if it can be considered as a different playstyle.

 

[ShootingStarmie]

I'd actually say Starmie or Tentecruel are the best spinner in Hail. Just because Tentecruel is amazing in rain teams doesn't stop it from being good in Hail. It offers nice synergy for Hail teams, resisting Fire and Fighting type attacks (both aimed at Abomasnow). Abomasnow is also the only weather starter that can switch into Politoed easily (most of the time), so that alone could be a reason to use it say over Tyranitar (I know Tyranitar offers more support in general, but a niche is a niche regardless of how small).

Most of the threats you mentioned are the #1 Pokemon hail teams check. It's like saying Sun teams of problems with Heatran. Yes Heatran's a problem, but every decent Sun team has a great answer to Heatran, and the same can be said for Hail teams and these threats.

I dunno, I just feel like everyone bashes on Hail because of it's SR weakness. But I think the fact that Aboma can switch into Specs Politoed so easily (well, more easily than the other weather starters), is more than enough of a reason to use Hail.

 

[Ryanor]

I'd actually say Starmie or Tentecruel are the best spinner in Hail. Just because Tentecruel is amazing in rain teams doesn't stop it from being good in Hail. It offers nice synergy for Hail teams, resisting Fire and Fighting type attacks (both aimed at Abomasnow).

It could be good on paper but outside of rain, Tentacruel's lifespan is incredibly shortened and it can't even switch in things like Heatran. Starmie is a better option though always susceptible of being trapped, but yea, a decent option.

Most of the threats you mentioned are the #1 Pokemon hail teams check. It's like saying Sun teams of problems with Heatran. Yes Heatran's a problem, but every decent Sun team has a great answer to Heatran, and the same can be said for Hail teams and these threats.

I dunno, I just feel like everyone bashes on Hail because of it's SR weakness. But I think the fact that Aboma can switch into Specs Politoed so easily (well, more easily than the other weather starters), is more than enough of a reason to use Hail.

Heatran is a different story and it has nothing to do with threats like Keldeo or KyuB. When you make a hail team your teambuilding is seriously restricted and you probably won't be able to find space to cover all of these incredible threats. In sun even some abusers have moves to beat Heatran (Earthquake Venusaur, HJK Sawsbuck...). It isn't a fair comparison at all.

Sure, Abomasnow can switch into SpecsToed. To be honest, it isn't an enough reason for running hail.

 

[Nysyr]

It could be good on paper but outside of rain, Tentacruel's lifespan is incredibly shortened and it can't even switch in things like Heatran. Starmie is a better option though always susceptible of being trapped, but yea, a decent option.


Heatran is a different story and it has nothing to do with threats like Keldeo or KyuB. When you make a hail team your teambuilding is seriously restricted and you probably won't be able to find space to cover all of these incredible threats. In sun even some abusers have moves to beat Heatran (Earthquake Venusaur, HJK Sawsbuck...). It isn't a fair comparison at all.

Sure, Abomasnow can switch into SpecsToed. To be honest, it isn't an enough reason for running hail.

This comes from experience, but Starmie doesn't work as well as Tenta on hail. This is partly due to its massive pursuit weakness, and also because running it allows for too many pokemon to rip thru your team since it doesn't cover enough threats. Sure it can spin against Gengar, but it loses to Jellicent very handily. The issue is you need to run a defensive set since you don't have rain boosted hydros to abuse, and you are taking damage from hail all the time meaning LO wears you out fast. You need psyshock to hit things like Keldeo and Gengar, while scald is all you get for the rest of your coverage. Scald/Psyshock just doesn't do enough for hail; you need something to spread status around.

My personal favourite hail set for Tenta is a liquid ooze variant with gigadrain. I personally use toxic with 290 speed to make sure Kyu-B can't be a dick and set up a sub in front of it, while also being able to spin on Mamoswine. Toxic also works better on Jellicent.

Tentacruel @ Black Sludge
Trait: Liquid Ooze
EVs: 112 Spd / 248 HP / 148 Def
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic / Toxic Spikes
- Scald
- Rapid Spin
- Giga Drain


And you are right about Abomasnow being no reason to run hail since it sucks. You run hail to abuse either Kyu-B or SubRoost Kyurem, those are the only reasons. Fortunately these 2 are good enough that hail won't fall by the wayside.

 

[Ryanor]

In fact I don't know if Tentacruel is better than Starmie under hail or not, I just wanted to point out that it's worse outside of rain and has a hard time to spin in almost everything. For example, your set loses around a half of its total HP when it switch into a Close Combat from ScarfTerrakion. That's not something desirable when your team really need keep away from entry hazards.

I agree with you, Kyurem is a marvellous Pokemon but it can do almost the same under rain or even in a weathereless team.