Hope It Gives You Hail (reqs for Keldeo test)

[Bughouse]

Hey everyone, this is the team I used to get reqs for the Keldeo test. I intentionally did not overprepare for Keldeo and instead tried to make a team that would especially thrive with Keldeo gone, but could potentially handle it while it still existed. At the end of the day, it performed about as well as I expected it to, but I know there are many improvements that could be made. It was a 15 minute team, so I'm not too attached to anything in particular.

Kyurem-Black @ Leftovers
Trait: Teravolt
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 Atk (proposed change to 120 HP / 252 SpA / 136 Spe with a Modest nature, ShellShocker)
Hasty Nature
- Ice Beam
- Draco Meteor
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Outrage

Specially-based Mixed Attacking Kyurem-B hits HARD. An obvious choice on any Hail team, since the Ice type causes some nice lefties disparity. I like having this as the "lead" of my team because I find it tends to make other people expect it to be choiced, and lead with a Steel in response. I don't use Blizzard because Abomasnow isn't the easiest weather user to switch in and keep alive forever. I find Ice Beam tends to be reliable enough. Draco Meteor > Earth Power because this thing tends to be my best option versus Rotom-W.

Reuniclus (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SAtk
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Recover
- Psychic (proposed change to Psyshock, ShellShocker)
- Shadow Ball (proposed change to Calm Mind, ShellShocker)
- Focus Blast

Bulky Reuniclus ties up a few issues my team sometimes has issues with. For one, SubProtect Gliscor is super annoying for me and I just never have the patience to deal with it appropriately. Reuniclus laughs at its face. As an added bonus, it's a check/(counter if no hax) to Scarf Terrakion, which is the scariest Terrakion for my team to handle otherwise.

Tentacruel (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Rain Dish
EVs: 252 HP / 236 Def / 20 Spd
Bold Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Toxic Spikes
- Scald
- Knock Off

Pretty standard fair to have a bulky spinner on a Hail team. Starmie would normally go in this spot, but it isn't for me, for a few reasons. One: Tentacruel is a much better switch-in to Politoed than Starmie is, in terms of longevity because of the Rain Dish. Pretty much every chance Tentacruel gets to come in on a Politoed is a chance to either Spin, lay Toxic Spikes if they seem they will be important, fish for Scald burns, or if all else fails, Knock Off. For example, I had a match where Politoed switched out into Hydreigon as I used Knock Off. No more Life Orb? Much more manageable damage output. In another Scarf Latios became an itemless Latios. This is very crucial at removing the items of Scarfers faster than my own in particular. This also tends to enable Tentacruel to destroy basically any Ferrothorn lacking Power Whip, and beat even those that have it. Between knocking off lefties, getting a Scald burn, being able to Rapid Spin its hazards away and laying Toxic Spikes to screw over the Cent half of a FerroCent core, this Tentacruel does more for me than most any Starmie could.

Abomasnow (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Snow Warning
EVs: 84 Spd / 252 Atk / 172 HP
Adamant Nature
- Substitute
- Leech Seed
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard

Obviously, a Hail team needs an Abomasnow. Leech Seed is for general utility and health maintenance. I preferentially pick Substitute over Protect, because I find Abomasnow behind a Sub is surprisingly threatening to many teams, once weakened. Ferrothorn lacking Gyro Ball are set up bait for the Sub (if Tentacruel has knocked off Lefties, it dies even faster). Defensive Politoed doesn't like seeing the Sub very much either. While I could run Wood Hammer for these sorts of concerns, I would miss being able to hurt Scizor or Heatran or Jirachi or Magnezone, etc etc as they switch in. Ice Shard is by far the most essential move on Abomasnow. It singlehandedly fixes most of my Dragon problem.

Heatran (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef (proposed change to a bulkier spread, Superspy)
Timid Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Fire Blast
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Earth Power

I need Stealth Rock somewhere, and Heatran was the most logical choice. I like carrying 3 attacks and a surprisingly speedy spread. People always are expecting SpDef Tran in this spot, so I net a few surprise hits/kills, especially with HP Grass on things like Defensive Rotom-W or Toed. I do miss Roar on here. Volcarona is a huge threat, particularly Rain Volcarona.

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 224 Spd / 252 Atk / 32 HP
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stone Edge
- Superpower (changed to Sleep Talk, MCBarrett's suggestion)

And finally the Scarfer that ties it all together. This is my answer to all non-Scarf Terrakion, while Reuniclus handles the Scarfers. Intimidate and U-turn provide insane utility for a team that relies heavily on supporting each other. Many teams in the playtest seemed to be susceptible to EQ Spam as a clean-up option too, which was nice. Most things immune to EQ can be played around using Lando-T's U-turn, Ice Shard from Abomasnow, or Kyurem-B smashing in general.





The biggest threat to my team was probably Gengar. If Focus Blast is hitting, I don't have too many options. I'd be curious to see recommendations on how to adapt to deal with Gengar.

Additionally, I thought I'd run through my method of dealing with Keldeo, since it was the suspect, after all. First, if no Tentacruel or Toxicroak is in sight, GET TOXIC SPIKES UP. Second, try to keep Hail up. This is suprisingly easy to maintain vs Rain, harder vs Sand. But then, in Sand, Keldeo hits less hard. Third, keep Kyurem-B and Reuniclus in good health. Knock Off with Tentacruel if it appears to be Scarf, so Landorus-T can outrun it. Basically, try to whittle it down. I have no perfect checks or counters or anything, but I have a team that can combine to stop most any Keldeo over time. A good Keldeo user will likely win in the end, but that's ok. I wasn't trying to overplay the suspect test.

Importable:

Kyurem-Black @ Leftovers
Trait: Teravolt
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 Atk
Hasty Nature
- Ice Beam
- Draco Meteor
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Outrage

Reuniclus (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SAtk
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Recover
- Psychic
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast

Tentacruel (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Rain Dish
EVs: 252 HP / 236 Def / 20 Spd
Bold Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Toxic Spikes
- Scald
- Knock Off

Abomasnow (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Snow Warning
EVs: 84 Spd / 252 Atk / 172 HP
Adamant Nature
- Substitute
- Leech Seed
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard

Heatran (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Fire Blast
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Earth Power

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 224 Spd / 252 Atk / 32 HP
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stone Edge
- Sleep Talk

 

[MCBarrett]

Hey srk, really nice team I remember playing you a couple of times on the ladder with my sun team and we split matches. Anyways your synergy is pretty fantastic and your support from Tentacruel/ Reuniclus helps your team out quite a bit. I think just a few moveset touchups could help you deal with a few things a bit better.

First of all Breloom seems annoying to a decent portion of your team and you will likely have to switch out to Lando-T or Reuniclus to avoid KOs and this can easily be predicted and they will be put to sleep and set up on. I think using Sleep Talk over Superpower on Lando-T would be a good idea since Superpower is rarely useful and having a really nice check to Breloom is always appreciated.

Next, Jolly Mamoswine can be a threat as well, since Reuniclus is really the only thing that wants to switch into it it. A simple switch of items on Heatran from Leftovers to Air Balloon will give you another way of dealing with Mamoswine and helps you avoid trapping from Dugtrio as well which is always nice. Also on Heatran I would recommend using HP Ice over HP Grass. Dragons are much more threatening to your team than bulky waters who can be worn down rather easily by T Spikes support, Leech Seed, Hail damage and Kyub constantly threatening them, plus you have three good switch ins in Reuniclus, Abomasnow and Tentacruel. HP Ice will allow you to switch into Outrages and revenge kill without having to bring in Abomasnow which should help with its survivability.

Hope my suggestions helped! Let me know how it works and great job with the team!

 

[Bughouse]

Thanks! :)

Landorus-T:
I definitely should have been using Sleep Talk over Superpower, and I will make that change. I do like Superpower for hitting Air Balloon Tran, for example, but yeah I can always U-turn out to Tentacruel or something. Sleep Talk will definitely solve my Breloom issue almost instantaneously. That's a simple change I can get right on board with.

Heatran:
Mamoswine was an issue, which I had to play around with some Intimidates and heavy reliance on Reuniclus. While I could shift to Air Balloon, I am scared about the wear of Hail, without Lefties, as well as the fact that Air Balloons don't last forever. One misplay leaves me back at square one in terms of Mamo. I do like how Air Balloon helps me with SunTrio too. SunTrio is aggravating for this team if I'm not careful. So I do like Balloon, but I'm not totally sold. If I do switch to Air Balloon, HP Ice makes a lot of sense. As is, HP Ice is kinda silly since all Dragons can EQ me anyway, and in terms of revenging an Outrage-locked mon, I have Abomasnow. But with Balloon, it'd make sense. Still, giving up HP Grass concerns me. It makes me even more susceptible to Rotom-W (or even Gastrodon).

EDIT: Yeah, not on board with Air Balloon + HP Ice, and I don't think it makes too much sense to swap HP Ice for HP Grass with no balloon present to dodge the EQs. I also lose pretty hard to Bulky Rotom-W without HP Grass as a helpful option.



Any suggestions for Gengar?

 

[Alter]

Hey there srk1214,

Solid hail team. I love the use of Knock Off Tentacruel & Specially Based Kyurem-B. I have a couple of suggestions which are pretty optional but could help improve the efficiency of your team. First of all, if you're finding you need more bulk on Kyurem-B, an alternate spread of 120 HP / 252 SpA / 136 Spe with a Modest nature could be used which still lets you outspeed Mamo / Dnite. I think you should also try out Calm Mind over Shadow Ball on Reuniclus as Bulky CM Reuniclus is an amazing win condition under Hail. Not only is it extremely hard to stop after its counters are worn down/dead, but Reuniclus also loves Hail as while everything else is taking damage it is slowly gaining HP. This also gives you a nice win condition and set up sweeper which you currently lack. With that I'd also try Psyshock > Psychic to hit from both sides of the spectrum. I noticed in your importable you're not running full IVs in SAtk / Spd so make sure to patch that up too.

Cool team and congrats on getting reqs (i'm almost there!) This is a solid team utilizing some underrated mons and I think it has tons of potential to do well. gl!

 

[Superspy]

Lmao. I played this team on the ladder. (I was the one who complained about your "friends" using caps and you posted in
the main chat about it :p).

Well when we played (I won lol) I saw life orb latios being a huge ass problem even any latios set being a problem. Draco hits everything hard and heatran is 2hkoed by Draco meteor and we all know ice shard fails to kill latios >.>...

I suggest giving heatran more special defensive bulk as its your only dragon resist and since OU is filled with them
giving heatran more special defensive bulk is just what you need.

Well good luck with your team. A spread of 136 special defense would be nice making draco meteor or surf 4hko or 3hko you.

 

[Bughouse]

Thanks for the rates, ShellShocker and Superspy!

I haven't found a need for more bulk on Kyurem-B for anything in particular, but I'll experiment with that spread and maybe a few others. It's unfortunately not enough bulk to safely switch in on Mamo's EQ + Ice Shard, if Rocks are up, nor does it help much with a +1 Volcarona, so I'm not sure how much it helps with my most glaring issues. It does give me a chance to live a Focus Blast from Gengar if Rocks aren't up, but that's still kinda iffy. I'd probably rather keep the speed, but I'll experiment.

As for Reuniclus, the reason I'm not running the oh-so-classic BW1 Win Condition CM Reuniclus is just that I never find time to actually get it set up and ready to go. Additionally, I like having 2 attacks that hit Gengar so that SubDisable Gar can't just set up in my face; keeping Gengar from getting a Sub up is super important for my team, even if it means sacrificing Reuniclus. Maybe that's too situational though, so I'll give the more standard Calm Mind a spin. Psyshock isn't a bad idea at all, though. I forget exactly why I went with Psychic in the first place... (oh and the IVs came from an earlier HP Fire version I guess?)

Hm. Latios is a threat. I tend to think I can do a good job of keeping it from coming in scot-free, and Rocks and Hail rack up, as does LO damage. It for sure is a huge revenge-threat to my team. I don't know what I can do to adapt to Latios, short of adding a Chansey or something, which I really don't want to do. What I do know is that Latios does not make me insta-lose by any means. I actually tend to find Scarf Latios scariest, only because I can't outrun it. More SpDef on Heatran would obviously help, but Surf is still an issue, and Heatran has a knack for being worn down anyway. I think the best I can do for Latios at this point isn't a change of spread, but rather a swap of a team member in general.

 

[Jukain]

For your Latios issue: run Haban Berry Kyurem-B! Without rocks up it can survive a Specs Draco Meteor even and helps you against Dragon-types overall. I'm not doing a full rate, but that would work really well.