SS OU Hail team (probably bad)

[ZynxDaLynx]

Look, I have long since accepted my teambuilding skills are terrible. So I tried a different approach. I focused on hail, my favorite weather (the only thing I am decent at making), Arctozolt, the best hail sweeper, and adding other team members to check its weak points. And the tier is OU because I have knowledge of it.


Ninetales-Alola @ Icy Rock
Ability: Snow Warning
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Aurora Veil
- Blizzard
- Encore
- Moonblast
Hail bringer. Self-explanatory. Encore to lock enemies into setup, Aurora Veil support for teammates, Blizzard&Moonblast for attack. A certain someone before said Tales was too frail for Pain Split, so Moonblast over that. EVs and nature are Speed-based.


Arctozolt @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Slush Rush
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stomping Tantrum
- Bolt Beak
- Blizzard
- Low Kick
Classic Zolt set, but with Stomping Tantrum over Sub. Well, it is an all-out attacker, and I never use Sub anyway. Stomping Tantrum is useful for Electrics, such as Zeraora or Koko. Chomp kills those, but why switch out when you can just kill it?


Garchomp @ Life Orb
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang
- Scale Shot
Attacking Chomp set. Standard, apart from Life Orb which is here for extra power.
Defeats: Heatran, Blacephalon, Blaziken


Moltres-Galar @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Berserk
EVs: 180 SpA / 76 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Agility
- Fiery Wrath
- Air Slash
I really am just using modified Smogon sets. Air Slash over Hurricane, I hate low-accuracy moves that miss when you need it not to. Anyways, requires setup so I usually do it against SpAttackers, because Molt-G has great Special bulk. Zapdos are great as well, never OHKO but instead activating weakness policy.
Defeats: Latios/as, Mew, Gengar, Alakazam


Terrakion @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Swords Dance
Fast. Not much to be said. Standard set, but with Life Orb because Choice items are too inflexible. Stone Edge&Close Combat STAB moves, SD greatly boosts Atk.
Defeats: Weav, Volcanora


Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 232 HP / 252 Def / 24 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flamethrower
- Earth Power
- Flash Cannon
- Toxic
You might ask, 'Why Flamethrower?' Then you might see my earlier comment on Hurricane and think either, 'Makes sense' or, more commonly, 'Just use Magma Storm!' Sure, Magma Storm is Tran's signature move, but it is quite unreliable. I know good teambuilders weigh the options between accuracy and power, or any other effects, but all I care about is once losing the match to missing MagmaS 3 times in a row.
Defeats: Buzzwole, Lele

I sound very unprofessional, even to me. But anyways, the approach I took to making this team was, 'What weaknesses does Zolt have? How to cover them?' Rather than my usual way of 'What types kill Ice?' It sounds silly, but I never thought about actual examples in the past. Even now I'm straying from the usual 'How do teams work well together?' to only caring bout Zolt. Like... HO, but not really.

 

[3d]

this team is pretty solid on paper and while i believe you had the right idea in addressing problems while building, i believe this team can be optimized a bit more with a few pokemon changes. the lack of defog on a hail team is also concerning as a lot of it involves switching in ninetales and without defog, that means ninetales is always taking hazards. i also noticed that rain can overpower this team quite a bit as without any real water resist it becomes tough relying on zolt to revenge kill especially when most rains have a ferrothorn.

-> corviknight provides this team with the much needed defog support it needed while keeping the matchup vs lele in tact. it also lives weaviles hits and can threaten it back with body press or even just simply uturning out also works. being able to pressure stall stealth rock is very important as that means most rockers in the tier, besides heatran which is pressured by garchomp, and HO lead mew can never really find a way to get stealth rocks up.

-> volcanion provides this team with a water immunity and still maintains the ability to deal with volcarona. going AV works here as the aim of this team is to play with hazards completely off the floor and the extra bulk really comes into play vs things like volcarona, tapu lele, and even things like tapu koko which cannot kill with thunderbolt and is scared out by earth power. terrakion isn't really standard in the metagame and i believe volcanion will provide much more use.

changing arctozolt to leftovers and substitute can also prove to be useful as it gives it the ability to block leech seed from ferrothorn, dodge potential scald burns from toxapex and lets you fire off another hit if hail runs out. leftovers is very useful since you can gain HP while behind a sub, and as mentioned before, heavy duty boots is not needed on this team as the aim is to play with hazards off.

volcanion and corv sets

Corviknight @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 168 Def / 88 SpD
Impish Nature
- Body Press
- U-turn
- Defog
- Roost

Volcanion @ Assault Vest
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
- Steam Eruption
- Flamethrower
- Earth Power
- Sludge Wave