Hail on the Offensive

Nanoswine

This is my first time actually posting here, but I've checked the site for a while and I'm certainly not new to competitive battling. This is an idea that I've toyed with before, but never actually built a whole team. The basic idea is that with T-tar becoming ever so common, and with the prevalence of steel types in the metagame, sandstorm no longer provides as much of the offensive support that it used to, as many common pokes are immune. So why not build a team that renews the horror of damaging weather effects in combination with pummeling offense and crippling status, with only 2 OU's immune to the weather's onslaught?



Lead: Abomasnow @ Focus Sash
Adamant
252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 Def
-Ice Shard
-Seed Bomb
-Earthquake
-Wood Hammer

Some may disagree, but Abomasnow is an incredible anti-lead. It beats many common leads such as Azelf, Aerodactyl, Pert, and Gliscor, sometimes remaining at full heath. Often Azelf or Aero will taunt expecting a subseeder, and instead eat a seed bomb or ice shard (respectively), dieing to priority the next turn, and not even getting rocks up. Wood Hammer is for after the sash is gone to dent something else before abomasnow is out.


Hail Abuser #1: Glaceon @ Choice Specs
Modest
252 SpAtk, 252 Spe, 4 Def
-Blizzard
-HP Fire
-Shadow Ball
-Sleep Talk

This is often what I bring out after Abomasnow dies. Pretty much all of this is filler minus Blizzard, as Glaceon's movepool is so shallow that blizzard does more than most of these do when they're super effective. Shadow ball for ghosts, and HP Fire is for the unsuspecting Scizor switch-in who thinks it's safe to get up an SD (or one who misses thanks to snow cloak)


Hail Abuser #2: Mamoswine @ Life Orb
Jolly
252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 Def
-Ice Shard
-Earthquake
-Stone Edge
-Superpower

Usually saved for late-game unless it can come in for a revenge kill, but even then I keep it in the wings. Earthquake for sheer power, Ice shard for dragons, Stone Edge for Fliers, Superpower for Bliss and Snorlax. Also extremely useful for being able to OHKO T-tar, taking any hit from a Scarftar bar Superpower, and outspeeding every other variety.


Fire Eater: Rapidash @ Wide Lens
Jolly
252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 HP
-Hypnosis
-Will-O-Wisp
-Flare Blitz
-Megahorn

I don't know why Rapidash gets such a bad rap, it has a very useable attack and speed, and though its movepool may be shallow offensively, its support options are quite helpful, like in this case. Rapidash comes in on a threatening fire attack and gets the flash fire boost. Next, it sleeps the threat, and burns the switch-in, and switches out to absorb fire later. I actually mostly play on my Diamond cart, so hitting with hypnosis isn't as big of an issue thankfully. I also don't have to deal with people looking this set up and staying in for the burn since they've never seen Rapidash before, at least as much as on Shoddy.


Hail Abuser #3: Froslass @ Brightpowder
Timid
252 HP, 252 Spe
-Thunder Wave
-Confuse Ray
-Spikes
-Protect

Living death, as well as the only non-offensive team member. The point of Froslass is to come in, set up spikes, and paralyze everything in sight. The spikes are very helpful for preventing shuffling, and even if Froslass is gone, the opponent’s spinner is often paralyzed and unable to outspeed anything. Protect is useful for scouting status and for extra hail damage.


Weakness Absorber: Poliwrath @ Leftovers
Adamant
252 HP, 252 Atk, 4 Spe
-Bulk Up
-Waterfall
-Focus Punch
-Substitute

One of the strongest members of my team, once set up it often pulls off a sweep. He comes in to scare something off, sets up a sub, then uses either Bulk Up or Focus Punch. Also, he is really useful for taking water attacks aimed at Mamo, which in turn grants another sub. I actually intended Poliwrath to be played a lot differently when I made this set, but the way I use it now is extremely effective.



I'm taking any suggestions for this team, I want to improve it further than its current 5/1 win-loss ratio.
 
Scarftar does not mix well with your team. He also removes Abomasnow's hail (Based on your description and EVs, you play him as suicide, and I don't see any other method of getting hail up after he dies)
 
^Last I checked it was allowed.

Anyways, I want to point out that just because your playing an offensive hail team, it doesn't mean your limited to only ice type poke as your main attackers, heck you don't even need Ice type mons on your team. Though I think you would do well to keep Abomasnow(duh) and Mamoswine, as the later can work as a great check to Latias and Salamence and is a good overall attacker. The main thing you want to focus on with this team is to maximize the benefit of inflicting damage to almost every pokemon on your opponents team each turn. Another point I want to make is Ttar. Your Abomasnow atm is a suicide lead, meaning it will probably have fainted by turn 5. Ttar happens to be the 2nd most commonly used poke, meaning he can switch in and your hail abusers have lost their value, aside from Mamo. Thus, you should build your team so that it can play even without hail in play, using it just to abuse that extra damage like mentioned before. So rather than making changes to your team myself, I want to suggest that you go back to the drawing board and rework your team. It isn't a bad idea and has worked for others in the past. gl
 
With no recovery, no spinner, 4 Stealth Rock weaknesses and the fact that Stealth Rock is on almost every team in today's metagame, your team is in trouble right off the bat. Things like Heatran, Lucario, Metagross and Tyranitar have field days with this team. In my opinion hail teams cannot be covered with Ice types as it opens up way too many common weaknesses. I suggest picking between your 3 Ice types other than Abomasnow and work from there. Hail should be used as you suggest, to wear the many things down that aren't resistant to it, but your team can't be completely reliant on it because of the plethora of Tyranitars and Hippowdons running around.
 
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