Anxiety BandTar actually sounds AMAZING in a Hail team. I think I might use it with Gochiruzeru. Use a Tickle or two and then use Pursuit. :D.
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Ice, Ice, Baby - Hail Discussion
- Thread starter Cshadow
- Start date
Can Cloyster have some love on Hail teams? He can serve as a sweeper or defensive/support role.
Qwilfish Poison Jab for the win against Abomasnow! Lol. Qwilfish clearly needs to be used more against Abomasnow for Rain.
Rankurusu is a really good addition to hail teams imo. magic guard ignores hail obv, plus letting him use life orb for free off of 125 SpA. It's somewhat bulky, has recover and most importantly, adds a valuable fighting resist. It also doesn't care about poison/burn and paralysis to an extent. If only it'd learn blizzard...
Man, I wish there were a Hail-equivalent of Sand Throw/Chlorophyll/Swift Swim. D:
Erm....
An thoughts on Tension Tyranitar? It has a handy resist to fire, among other things, and would theoretically work well as a revenge killer, along the lines of:
Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Hasty Nature
12 Attack / 240 Special Attack / 252 Speed
Fire Blast
Stone Edge
Earthquake
Pursuit
Not really the best of sets, literally just theorymoning here. Though still, Tension Tyranitar deserves a mention imo!
An thoughts on Tension Tyranitar? It has a handy resist to fire, among other things, and would theoretically work well as a revenge killer, along the lines of:
Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Hasty Nature
12 Attack / 240 Special Attack / 252 Speed
Fire Blast
Stone Edge
Earthquake
Pursuit
Not really the best of sets, literally just theorymoning here. Though still, Tension Tyranitar deserves a mention imo!
No abuse of Blizzard in Hail? For Shame! Pound Tyranitar counters into the dirt with Blizzard/Fire Blast. Stone Edge Stab and Pursuit to grab Shandera and other things. Choice Earthquake is risky because of Balloon, Levitate, and flying and you're Scarfed and you're already hitting much weaker than normal. Fire Blast/Blizzard covers everything I can think of with Stone Edge as stab.
That's why you carry earthquake. :) And break its balloon before revealing abomasnow. CSBoma is really amazing since it can outspeed all weather abusers besides DD kingdra and hit most of them supereffectively. Even without any defensive EVs, Abomasnow is amazingly bulky. Mines somehow lived through a CS ono's outrage and KOed with ice punch. In addition, an unboosted rock slide from dory fails to KO while aboma outspeeds and 2-hit KOs with icepunch/seed bomb.
The set I've been using carries ice punch/seed bomb/earthquake/ice shard. I once ran focus punch over ice shard for predicting nattorei, but I've found the priority to be more useful. *stares at landlos and garchomp*
For my CS set, I use a Adamant nature. I'm thinking of switching to jolly in order to outspeed the 108 speed tier, but I find the lack of power a bit off-putting given Abomasnow's lowish attack stat. So does jolly miss out on any 1-2 hit KOs that Adamant achieves?
I remember Theorymon mentioning this for Ubers, so I decided to try it on for OU as well:
Yuniran (Level 1) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Guard
No EVs
Nature: lol
-Trick Room
-Endeavor
-Confuse Ray
-Toxic??
Your typical FEAR Pokemon. Pretty much Cleffa wishes it could have been since it gets access to Trick Room. Confuse Ray could potentially nab you an extra kill with Endeavor + Hail
Yuniran (Level 1) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Guard
No EVs
Nature: lol
-Trick Room
-Endeavor
-Confuse Ray
-Toxic??
Your typical FEAR Pokemon. Pretty much Cleffa wishes it could have been since it gets access to Trick Room. Confuse Ray could potentially nab you an extra kill with Endeavor + Hail
Now that I'm more san due to more sleep, I think after looking at that one suggestion I have a rough idea of what should be used.
Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Hasty Nature
Blizzard
Fire Blast
Stone Edge
Pursuit
12 Attack / 240 Special Attack / 252 Speed
Pretty much ScarfTar for hail. Fire Blast roasts normal Tyranitar counters, Natto especially, and Blizzard takes advantage of Hail. Stone Edge is obvious STAB as is Pursuit. Tension is there pretty much to avoid Sand Stream, though it could probably work in a pinch if you're in against something that relies on it, Occa Berry Natto.
That's all I've got. Again, should be put in the OP.
Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Hasty Nature
Blizzard
Fire Blast
Stone Edge
Pursuit
12 Attack / 240 Special Attack / 252 Speed
Pretty much ScarfTar for hail. Fire Blast roasts normal Tyranitar counters, Natto especially, and Blizzard takes advantage of Hail. Stone Edge is obvious STAB as is Pursuit. Tension is there pretty much to avoid Sand Stream, though it could probably work in a pinch if you're in against something that relies on it, Occa Berry Natto.
That's all I've got. Again, should be put in the OP.
Ok, I've totally spent most of my weekend trying to update this thread. Unfortunately, between re-writes, game development, and new additions, I still have yet to add everything I want to the first post. In fact I should be doing homework instead of typing this, but this is infinitely more interesting than what I need to to do right now haha.
New Additions/Re writes:
Abomasnow
Ah; the metagame could use a little Christmas spirit, no? And whom is better fit to spread it other than the one and only Pokemon in the entire game who can boast the ability Snow Warning? Yes, Snow Warning is where the magic begins, as it lets Abomasnow bring a hailstorm unto the battlefield. Abomasnow’s stats are all average, sporting 90/75/85 defenses and decent 92/92/60 offenses. While being average isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it certainly isn’t a great thing, as Abomasnow has no outstanding stats to make use of his great movepool and decent offensive typing. Still, he could have been a lot worse, in fact, he’s pretty damn good as is!
Abomasnow is fairly versatile - Substitute + Leech Seed, Swords Dance and Choice Scarf are all very good options for him. Blizzard, Wood Hammer, Earthquake, Focus Punch, Ice Shard, Giga Drain are fantastic options to use in conjunction with his above possible sets. Most notably Abomasnow can sport two 120 base power STAB offensive moves, and in conjunction with Earthquake, can let him hit all opposing weather Pokemon for super effective damage.
Unfortunately, Abomasnow bears the burden of several crippling weaknesses. Weakness to Rock, Fighting, Fire (4x), Steel, Poison, Bug and Flying give Abomasnow a total of seven weaknesses, and thus widens the radius of his problems due to how common six of those weaknesses are. Typing wise though, he has several boons in a resistance to Grass, Water, Electric and Ground, which should give him several opportunities to switch in and reset the weather considering several of his best partners are Heatran, Walrien, Quagsire, Tentacruel, and many more! With teammates likes Rankurusu, Espeon, Nidoqueen, Sableye, Heatran, Forretress, Hariyama and Quagsire, Abomasnow should have few problems covering his many weaknesses.
Abomasnow @ Shed Shell/Leftovers
Trait: Snow Warning
EVs: 4 Def/ 252 SAtk/ 252 Spd
Modest (+SpA, -Atk)
- Blizzard
- Giga Drain
- Leech Seed
- Substitute
Abomasnow is best described as [/I]the[/I] “anti-metagame”, shutting down all opposing weathers, replacing whatever benefits they could be receiving with residual damage. The loss of Swift Swim, Sand Throw, Solar Power, Chlorophyll, the extra STAB bonus(es), and other such boosts they depend on can absolutely cripple opposing teams. How is this advantageous to hail? Well, to be quite honest, hail has no such boosts to depend on to work; only two abilities and a 120 base power move that by passes the accuracy check.
Blizzard and Giga Drain are give-ins, especially with Giga Drain’s base power buff and healing. Leech Seed and Substitute will help give Abomasnow some survivability. Substitute can give Abomasnow a defense against bulky waters he will usually find himself switching into, avoiding Toxic, and then recovering off the lost HP with Leech Seed (or Giga Drain), which will rack up quite the residual damage with entry hazards and hail. The choice between Shed Shell and Leftovers is simply which tier you find yourself playing in the most. Shed Shell is an absolute must for Dream World to avoid getting murdered by the ever popular Shanderra, while leftovers is more preferable for a Shanderra-less metagame.
Sets will vary. Some people will find it more efficient to run things like Wood Hammer or Ice Shard on more lead oriented Abomasnow sets. Whatever floats your boat, really.
A Choice Scarf set was mentioned before, was it not? With a set of Wood Hammer (or Giga Drain)/ Blizzard/ Earthquake/ Hidden Power [Fire]([Fighting]), Abomasnow will find himself able to severely damage opposing weather leads.
While the damage output may look promising, Abomasnow finds himself unable to guarantee a kill unless the weather inducer has taken prior damage (in Hippowdon‘s/Tyranitar‘s case, quite a bit). Choice Scarf sets are also more dangerous for Abomasnow because Stealth Rock and other entry hazards can chip away at his health, and you may not find the opportunity you need to Rapid Spin in order to get Abomasnow in the time you /need him to get in/. Wish Support could work fairly well (I suppose), just be careful.
Abomasnow’s discussion thread can be found here.
Froslass
The Ghost of Christmas Past has returned, with her normal and fighting immunities still intact, and her Ghost/Ice STAB unmatched. Looking only at the stats, Froslass itself is fairly promising. 70/70/70 defenses are nothing to be proud of, and are, in fact, fairly mediocre. However, she sports 80/80/110 offenses (though, the offenses themselves may be a little lackluster), the most important part being that delicious 110 base speed stat. 108 is a popular number this generation, most notably found on our little musketeer quartet! Froslass has access to Spikes, Taunt, Destiny Bond, Ice Beam, Shadow Ball, Torment, Pain Split, and Trick, making Froslass quite capable in a variety of roles you could wish for it to fill.
Froslass suffers from Ghost, Dark, Rock, Fire, and Steel, weaknesses while Froslass’s resistances are nothing to be proud of due to her frailty. However, Normal and Fighting immunities as well as Spikes are absolutely invaluable for a hail team, racking up plenty of passive damage and many a switch in opportunities in which to accomplish her job.
Froslass @ Focus Sash
Trait: Cursed Body
EVs: 4 Hp/ 252 SAtk/ 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Spikes
- Taunt
- Destiny Bond / Shadow Ball
- Ice Beam
Froslass’s standard spiking set from last generation. With Taunt, Spikes, and 110 base speed, immunity to Fake-Out, and the ability to block Rapid Spin, Froslass, in theory, should have a relatively easy time setting up Spikes. However, Froslass runs into a slight problem this generation. With the advent of Mischievous Heart, Magic Mirror, and the Team Preview, Froslass is going to have difficulty maintaining position as a dedicated lead.
Mischievous Heart may not be too terribly difficult to handle, as all the Pokemon with this ability are fairly frail. Taunt will however render most of Froslass’s set useless for three turns, meaning she will either have to switch out or be 2HKO’d by almost any attack thrown in her direction. Magic Mirror users are also not a huge problem, as they are weak to Shadow Ball. 252 Hp/ 0 SDef Espeon takes 59.9% - 70.7% from Shadow Ball, meaning Espeon cannot stay in without facing the risk of being absolutely crippled. Espeon and Froslass also share the same base Speed, leading much up to speed ties and mind games.
The Team Preview is a pretty straightforward issue - the ability to switch a lead around to counter your “dedicated lead” Froslass. Froslass cannot risk not being in the lead position because it will be absolutely useless if it switches into Stealth Rock, breaking it’s sash and losing 25% health. Which, as we all know, is not a good thing for Froslass.
Froslass however has other sets it could run to circumvent these issues. A Hail abuse set revolving around Snow Cloak could make life easier, as Froslass has access to Blizzard, Thunder Wave, and Substitute. Froslass’s other options consist of the choice between his abilities (now that I’ve mentioned it). Cursed Body will let Froslass have a 30% chance of locking and opponent’s attack when hit by said move. This can be great for forcing switches, or , alternatively, making switches easier. However, Froslass loses out on all tutors, most notably the move Trick, by using this ability.
Froslass’s discussion thread can be read here.
Rotom-F
Brrr! It’s cold in here! I say there must be something wrong with the oh god kill me. Rotom-F had a unique niche last generation on hail teams, boasting a powerful Blizzard, as well as a Normal/Fighting/Ground immunity, which, coupled with his standard Rest + Sleep Talk set, made him a fairly useful status absorber/Rapid Spin blocker. All the Rotom Formes this generation were (sort of) blessed with a secondary typing to replace their former Ghost-typing, matching the type of their signature move(s). With Rotom-F’s signature move being Blizzard, he got - you guessed it - Ice typing. What does this mean for us? Well, it means Rotom-F was stripped of almost any good resistance he had. On the bright side, he did lose a Ghost and Dark weakness, meaning he is no longer pursuit bait!
However, Rotom-F now suffers from a Rock, Fire, and Fighting weakness and lost his resistance to Bug, Steel, and an immunity to Normal/Fighting moves, which included the likes of Fake Out, Close Combat, Super Power etc. Rotom-F does retain an Electric, Ice (gained~) and Flying resistance as well as an immunity to Ground attacks though.
Rotom-F @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 Hp/ 120 Def/ 136 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Blizzard
- Volt Change
- Trick
With Rotom-F’s common weaknesses but good Special Attack and good defenses he himself is probably best adept at making use of a Choice Scarf. His Ice typing, despite the added weaknesses, has a silver lining: STAB Blizzard. Rotom-F also has this neat little thing - he is the only Pokemon to get STAB on both Electric and Ice attacks, give him quite the range of coverage with merely two attacks. Volt Change is the new Electric-typed U-turn, making a great pivot and scout. Trick is exceptionally useful for crippling tanks, walls, and other such Pokemon that would greatly prefer their current item than a Choice Scarf.
As a Choice Scarf user, switching in repeatedly with Stealth Rock on the field is going to absolutely murder him. As suggest for Hail teams in general, it is a good idea to run a Rapid Spin/Magic Mirror/Taunt Pokemon.
Heatran
Looks like Froggy scarfed down another Chaos Emerald, turning himself into this giant volcano frog! Heatran was top-tier in Gen IV with his fantastic typing, great stats, and ability to check many threats. In Gen V, Heatran returns, his same typing and stats that put him in high OU proving to be just as useful as they were then as they are now. 91/106/106 defenses are great, making him rather bulky. 90/130/77 offenses may leave a little to be desired (77 Speed is rather underwhelming), but his 130 base Special Attack stat cannot be ignored, and can actually be compared with the massive power creep this generation has had. With Fire Blast, Overheat, Lava Plume, Earth Power, Dragon Pulse, Stealth Rock, Torment, Taunt, Roar, Will-O-Wisp, Rest, Sleep Talk, and an amazing ability in Flash Fire, Heatran should be considered for each and every hail team.
A 4x resistance to Steel, Grass, Bug, Ice and 2x resistances to Normal, Flying, Psychic, Ghost, Dark, and Dragon, gives Heatran a plethora of resistances to work with, and he has only 3 weaknesses in exchange. Unfortunately, those weaknesses can be quite bad for him. A Fighting weakness puts him in the same situation many other members on a hail team suffer from: Coulrophobia. His Water and Ground weaknesses are easily manageable. Abomasnow, Latias, Shinpora, the teammates bountiful.
Heatran @ Balloon
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 Def/ 252 SAtk/ 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Dragon Pulse
- Stealth Rock / Hidden Power [Grass] / Stone Edge
The Balloon is a blessing my dear friends. Many Pokemon with a Ground weakness are now perfectly capable of saving their own asses thanks to this stroke of genius by someone over at Nintendo. With the Balloon, Heatran’s largest problem - his Siesmophobia - is alleviated by this item, giving him plenty of free switch-ins. Unfortunately for Heatran this makes taking advantage of any resistance granted by his wonderful typing hard. The Balloon is, unfortunately, a one use item, being popped when hit with any sort of damaging attack that he isn’t immune to. This means that Heatran users must decide between maintaining his temporary immunity to his largest weakness or switching in on a deadly (resisted, no immune) attack aimed at another teammate.
His set is pretty much a carbon copy from last generation’s Stealth Rock Lead set. All the moves are standard, the last slot being up to you. There are several interesting options here that should all be taken into account, but should only be chosen based on the needs of your team. Stealth Rock is great in general, and should be considered, but if you’re running say, Forretress along side him, it might not be as useful. Hidden Power [Grass] lets him hit bulky water Pokemon like Swampert, but that could be better left to Abomasnow, who, has an easy time walling many water Pokemon. Stone Edge could be used as a little surprise, as Heatran utterly walls most Ulgamoth, and this could be used to outright kill him with ease.
Heatran is perfectly capable of running more defensive sets. Why with access to the aforementioned Taunt, Torment, Will-O-Wisp, Lava Plume, etc, he could be very useful. Unfortunately, SubTorment sets are not recommended. With Substitute, Heatran will lose 25% and cannot recover it with Leftovers, making it a rather large issue when using it in Hail. Heatran can also use more offensive oriented sets, such as Life Orb and Choice Scarf.
Heatran’s Dream World ability is the worst of trash. Flame Body is absolutely useless, but that’s not such a bad thing! Because it is so useless, you know how access to all that Gen IV and Gen V have to offer with no downsides whatsoever.
Heatran’s discussion thread can be found here.
Magnezone
Steel Pokemon are often top-tier Pokemon and very powerful in their own right, boasting impressive defenses and rather lovely offenses. On top of this, Ice Pokemon have a weakness to Steel, making it one of the bigger issues a hail team must prepare for. With our own little piece of Roswell, New Mexico, we should be able to lessen the problem considerably. Magnezone boasts fantastic 70/115/90 defenses (which become even better coupled with his 13 resistances), and 70/130/60 offenses, paying special attention to his wonderful 130 base Special Attack. Magnezone’s true usefulness lies in his ability: Magnet Pull. The ability to trap Steel Pokemon can be invaluable, providing hail teams with a fantastic and easy to use way of eliminating a very prominent type of Pokemon.
Magnezone’s resistances include Normal, Electric, Grass, Ice, Poison (immunity), Flying (4x), Psychic, Bug, Rock, Ghost, Dragon, Dark, and Steel (4x), with only 3 weaknesses: Fire, Fighting, and Ground (4x). Magnezone has lots of synergy with Pokemon like Latias and Kyurem, creating the infamous “2Drag1Mag” strategy.
Magnezone @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Magnet Pull
EVs: 4 Hp/ 252 SAtk/ 252 Spd
Timid Nature (-Atk, +Spd)
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Volt Change
Essentially the exact same set as last generation, only with Volt Change over the newly nerfed Explosion. There isn’t much to say. Magnezone, while a fantastic Pokemon, has a shallow movepool. It is not suggested to use a Substitute Steel Killer set due to it suffering the same problems Heatran would suffer from. Magnezone’s other options include Dual Screens, and making use of moves like Discharge, Magnet Rise, and Metal Sound. Other sets could be Life Orb, Choice Specs (though, the low speed could be off putting), and uh, well, that’s it actually.
Magnezone vs. Magneton
Magnezone and Magneton, while virtually the same Pokemon, have one large difference between them that gives Magneton any reason whatsoever to be chosen over Magnezone: his Speed stat. A base 70 Speed is quite higher than a base 60 Speed, allowing Magneton to outrun more threats, and, with his 120 base Special Attack stat, take them out just as Magnezone would (hopefully). Unfortunately for Magneton, he suffers from lesser bulk and a lesser attacking stat, giving him issues such as switching in and taking hits and the possibility of missing out on KO’s Magnezone could achieve.
Some people will look to Miracle of Evolution as a way to mitigate the bulk issue.
As you can clearly see, yes, Magneton ends up much bulkier than an un-invested Magnezone, but at what cost? Magnezone does not get Leftovers recovery when using Miracle of Evolution, meaning he will get ruined by hail damage due to having no form of recovery outside of Rest. On top of this, he won’t be able to outspeed /any/ of the threats Magnezone was capable of outrunning because Magneton cannot use two items at once, essentially making the whole idea of using Miracle of Evolution utterly useless.
The biggest (most important*) thing worth comparing is their Speed Stat. Magneton with maxed out Speed will end up with 262 as his number. With a Choice Scarf, he hits 393, allowing him to outrun all base 125’s (just barely missing out on being able to outspeed base 130’s). Magnezone is only capable of outrunning all base 110’s (just barely missing out on being able to outrun all base 115’s). This widens Magneton’s range of Pokemon, letting him check more threats. However, you’ll have to decide whether the Speed or Bulk and Power are more important when choosing between them.
Magnezone’s discussion thread can be found here.
Espeon
Espeon enters the fifth generation as one of two Pokemon to receive the new ability “Magic Mirror”. What does this mean for Espeon? Why, it just makes Espeon one of the best utility Pokemon in the game due to it’s ability to reflect back at the opponent any non-damaging move (read as: it works like Mirror Coat without having to waste a moveslot). This lets Espeon function well on a variety of teams who have trouble with things like Taunt, entry hazards, Spore, etc. Looking at Espeon’s stats, her defenses are rather horrible. 65/60/95 is nothing to be proud of. However, her offenses, 65/130/110, are fantastic. A 110 speed is very valuable and a 130 Special Attack stat is something to fear. With access to moves like Baton Pass, Reflect, Morning Sun, Psycho Shock, Calm Mind, Shadow Ball, and Grass Knot, Espeon can pull of both offensive and defensive sets that hail teams could find very useful.
Immediately many of you will notice that I didn’t mention absolute gems like Wish, Charm, Fake Tears, Tickle, or Yawn. Magic Mirror Espeon is an event Dream World Pokemon, making him Male only. This means Espeon cannot have Magic Mirror and Egg moves (together), missing out on several very useful support options. How unfortunate for us. Oh, it should also be mentioned that Morning Sun, while a good move, should never be run on a Hail team due to it only recovering ¼ of her health.
Espeon’s flaws outside of important illegal move combinations stem from its stats and typing, as well as the Team Preview function. Espeon is frail. There is no other way to describe or sugarcoat it. 65/60/95 is almost horrible, and still leaves much to be desired. This will make Espeon very vulnerable to any sort of priority attack, even resisted ones. It’s typing is a blessing in a metagame infested with Fighting-type Pokemon, but also makes it vulnerable to the Dark and Bug moves that many Fighting-type Pokemon will be carrying.
The Team Preview hurts your ability to play Espeon a little bit. With Espeon being able to switch in at any time your opponent will more than likely be very weary of laying hazards down. This could cost Espeon on a switch in if you mispredict, but you also must weigh the cost and the rewards. Losing (or crippling) Espeon is obviously not something you want to do, but it can also keep several Pokemon in check and prevent hazards from being lain down, which, depending on your team, may be well worth it.
Espeon @ Leftovers
Trait: Magic Mirror
EVs: 248 Hp/ 12 Def/ 248 Spd
Timid Nature (-Atk, +Spd)
- Baton Pass
- Reflect
- Psychic / Psycho Shock
- Hidden Power [Fire]
Last generation many players liked to describe the plethora of Psychic Pokemon as “Pursuit bait”, and, unfortunately for many of us, they did not have (m)any way(s) of escaping Pokemon like Tyranitar (making the name rather fitting). Espeon however, is lucky. It has access to the wonderful move Baton Pass, letting it escape slow Pursuit users like Tyranitar (although, Choice Scarf sets will pose a problem). Reflect is absolutely integral to playing Espeon, as it provides a little bit of team support on top of temporarily remedying Espeon’s abysmal Defense stat.
A Special thanks to IcyMan28, from whom I borrowed these useful calculations from : )
Under Reflect all of Espeon’s old banes fail to kill her. This means Espeon (having set up Reflect) can simply run away to the appropriate counter with Baton Pass while giving the rest of the team a temporary Iron Defense.
Espeon loves her Speed stat, and this EV spread reflects that. With 248 Speed (when accounting for Hidden Power [Fire]’s single point drop), Espeon is capable of outrunning all 108 base Pokemon - a very important number. With this Speed stat, Espeon can outrun Infernape, and, most importantly, our Musketeer Quartet (or Trio, depending on which tier you play). This will let Espeon effectively “check them” because of her dangerous Psychic-STAB. Psychic and Psycho Shock are a coin toss for whom is a bigger problem to your team. Psychic is obviously better for Pokemon like Breloom and Infernape, Kerudio, Roobushin, and Terrakion. However, boosted Kerudio and Virizion will be dealt much more damage with Psycho Shock. It should be noted that a new trend in Roobushin is to invest heavily in Special Defense to ensure that they aren’t murdered by a Shanderra Overheat, and that many Terrakion are run on Sandstorm teams. Depending on whether these are more frequent for you or not, it can actually be better to run Psycho Shock.
Espeon’s ability also lets her do fairly decent damage to many common Pokemon charged with the duty of setting down Spikes, most notably, Skarmory, Nattorei, and Forretress.
code]
0 SAtk Hidden Power [Fire] (70 Base Power)
252 Hp/ 252 Def Impish Nattorei: (63.6% - 75%)
252 Hp/ 252 SDef Sassy Nattorei: (46.6% - 55.7%)
252 Hp/ 240 Def Impish Skarmory: (50.9% - 59.9%)
252 Hp/ 240 SDef Careful Skarmory: (34.7% - 41.3%)
252 Hp/ 144 Def Relaxed Forretress: (108.5% - 127.7%)
252 Hp/ 252 Def Sassy Forretress: (70.1% - 83.6%)
[/code]
Very promising damage output. Due to Espeon reflecting back any non-damaging move they may carry on their individual sets (more than likely a lot of them), it makes me wonder what kind of physical damage Espeon is able to deal from them with when under Reflect.
Still promising! Espeon will serve well on a hail team as a check to dangerous fighting-type Pokemon as well as common entry hazard setters.
Espeon loses out on all previous generation move tutors, egg moves, and event moves when using her Dream World ability Magic Mirror.
Espeon’s discussion thread can be found here.
Gothiruselle
Gothiruselle is one of three fully evolved Pokemon to have ever received the ability Shadow Tag since it‘s debut in Generation III. Gothiruselle does not have Wobbuffet’s bulk, nor Shanderra’s massive Special Attack Stat. What Gothiruselle has over the two of them however is the capability to be able to perform both offensive and defensive roles. 70/95/110 defenses are nothing to scoff at, and it allows Gothiruselle to be relatively bulky on both sides of the spectrum. 55/95/65 are however pretty below average for offenses, the only good thing about them being her decent 95 base Special Attack Stat. What should give Gothiruselle any consideration whatsoever is her ability to make use of Charm, Tickle, and Fake Tears in conjunction with Shadow Tag (Wobbuffet only having access to Tickle). Charm, Tickle, Fake Tears, Captivate, Reflect, Light Screen, Thunder Wave, Safeguard, Taunt, Pyscho Shock, Thunderbolt, Shadow Ball, and Grass Knot, that pretty much sums up her movepool. Very good support moves, and several great offensive ones.
Gothiruselle’s largest drawback by far is her instant recovery deficiency. Gothiruselle does not have any sort of instant recovery outside of Rest. No Recover, no Wish, no Moonlight, zip. Which is unfortunate for a Psychic Pokemon to be quite honest. However, Rest does cure her susceptibility to Status, and Taunt will shut down any opposing Pokemon’s attempts to phaze, set up, or inflict poison on her, which, is pretty nice actually. With Gothiruselle’s ability to cripple the opponents Walls/Tanks/Slow Bulky Pokemon, and then outright kill them, she’s perfectly capable of breaking the opponent’s core.
Gothiruselle (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Shadow Tag
EVs: 252 Hp/ 208 Def/ 44 Spd
Bold (+Def, -Atk)
- Tickle / Charm / Fake Tears / Captivate
- Psychic / Psycho Shock
- Rest / Calm Mind
- Taunt
With four de-buffers at her disposal, it all comes down to which you feel would be most efficient. For more defensive sets, Charm and Captivate are the top two choices. Charm and Captivate will lower the opponents Attack and Special Attack respectively, making her great for switching into certain walls like Skarmory, Hippowdon, for example, a combination of Taunt and Charm absolutely crippling them. Tickle and Fake Tears should be used for more offensive sets. Tickle should be used in conjunction with Psycho Shock because it lowers the opponents Attack and Defense simultaneously, while Fake Tears is more suited for use with Psychic. Rest and Taunt are very important to this set. Taunt will shut down the opponent for exactly three turns. No phazing, no set up, nothing. Taunt will also allow you to use Rest successively, having you wake up the turn after the Taunt has ended, letting you repeat the cycle.
The EV spread is tailored on the more defensive side of things. 44 Speed evs were thrown to avoid being out sped by minimum speed Skarmory, with the rest thrown into her defenses. Oh, it should be noted that when running this spread, you get outran by 16 Spd Skarmory, meaning, if this is a problem, you should be running 252 Hp/ 196 Def/ 60 Spd.
No defensive Pokemon is complete without damage calculations, no?
The results are particularly interesting. Gothiruselle is perfectly capable of taking out the slower threats on an opponents team from the looks of this. Gothiruselle also has several other useful sets to make use of. A Status Platform, Choice Specs, and Calm Mind are the very first ones to spring up. A status platform may not be spectacular for a hail team due to how often Toxic Spikes are used, but if you’re looking for someone to spread paralysis she should be fairly useful. Choice Specs are deadly, allowing her to trap and decimate opposing Fighting-type Pokemon, though Shanderra, even with less bulk, may find himself more adept at that role. Calm Mind is more defensively oriented, trapping Pokemon that cant touch her and then setting up. Should work fairly similarly to Calm Mind Shanderra.
Gothiruselle’s discussion thread can be found here.
The Shadow Tag discussion thread can be found here.
Tyranitar
Tyranitar has always been held in our highest regards ever since his debut in Generation II. Tyranitar was blessed with a very generous BST and an offensive movepool that many Pokemon would kill for. From his BST Tyranitar received 134/95/61 offenses, which made him very deadly, and was even given solid 100/110/100 defenses to boot! Things could only get better from there, as Tyranitar was given Sandstream, an ability that summoned a permanent Sandstorm, boosting his already very good Special Defense by 50%. With access to moves like Rock Slide, Earthquake, Crunch, Stone Edge, Pursuit, Superpower, Focus Punch, Aqua Tail, Fire Punch, Dragon Tail, Flamethrower, Ice Beam, Blizzard, Thunderbolt, Focus Blast, Thunder Wave, Stealth Rock, Curse, and Dragon Dance, Tyranitar has a plethora of options at his disposal to be used in a variety of roles.
Interestingly enough, Tyranitar was given a new ability in Generation V, Tension. While Tension in itself may seem useless, it’s more of what Tyranitar does no longer do when he has this ability. Tyranitar no longer permanently sets up a Sandstorm, letting Hail have free reign! This lets you take advantage of Tyranitar’s ability to pick off Pursuit weak Pokemon without negating any of hail’s benefits (such as passive damage and 100% accurate Blizzards).
Unfortunately for Tyranitar he has several big flaws. Most notably, his weakness to common attacking types. Bug, Ground, Fighting, Water, Steel, and Grass[. From those types, Tyranitar is also priority weak, suffering from a vulnerability to Mach Punch, Aqua Jet, and Bullet Punch. Another weakness comes from his Dream World ability, which will alienate him from all previous generation move tutors and event moves and strip him from his 50% Special Defense Boost. However, because Tyranitar’s weaknesses are so common, they should be relatively easy to cover. A Ghost Pokemon comes to mind.
Tyranitar @ Choice Band
Trait: Anxiety
EVs: 180 Hp/ 252 Atk/ 76 Spd
Adamant (+Atk, -SpA)
- Pursuit
- Crunch
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
Tyranitar is probably best when employing this set, making wonderful use of a Choice Band. With Pokemon like Abomasnow and Forretress, one would wonder whom would be best equipped to take out the ever popular Shanderra. Tyranitar takes a measly 31.9% - 37.8% from a Shanderra Overheat (in hail of course), making him an ideal switch in when baiting that attack with the likes of Forretress and Abomasnow. Shanderra is absolutely ruined whether he stays in or switches out, as Tyranitar does 92% - 108.8% with Pursuit. Tyranitar still remains the same powerhouse he’s always been, and is still capable of picking off weaker threats with his good defenses and high offenses.
Tyranitar can make use of many other sets. Choice Scarf, Dragon Dance, TyraniBoah, and other such Mixed attackers all come to mind. If you’re really into using both Tyranitar and Hail, you could also always try a “Dirty Snow” strategy. Oh, it’s also worth noting that Tyranitar has access to Blizzard, meaning he can make perfect use of it when wielding a Choice Scarf.
Tyranitar’s discussion thread can be found here.
Quagsire
Everyone generation always get’s a “derpy” Pokemon. Fortunately for us, Quagsire is absolutely adorable. It’s a shame that he’s such an underrated Pokemon though. Last generation Quagsire was made famous for his performance in Ubers as one of the greatest checks to that one of that metagame‘s most dominant forces, Kyogre. Water/Ground has always been fantastic typing, sporting resistances to Rock, Fire, Steel, Poison, and an immunity to Electric-type attacks. Quagsire’s defenses are rather good too, as 95/85/65 makes him capable of taking many hits aimed at him (just barely missing out on being 2HKO’d by this Generation’s more popular offensive threats) but his offenses are a little low, 85/65/35 isn‘t something I‘d describe as “spectacular”. Luckily, Quagsire has quite the movepool to make up for his lack of offensive prowess, Haze, Encore, Yawn, Recover, Amnesia, Stockpile, Sleep Talk, Counter, Earthquake, Hail, Blizzard, Rock Slide and Stone Edge are just fantastic.
If his movepool, typing, and stats weren’t enough, Quagsire has two amazing abilities at his disposal: Unaware and Water Absorb. Water Absorb has it’s uses, letting Quagsire switch into powerful Water attacks and recover off 25% of his health, Unaware may find itself a little bit more useful. With powerhouses like Doryuuzu running amok, Quagsire can prevent sweeps with his ability to ignore the opponents boosts, and simply Recover off damage or reset the weather with Hail. However, Water Absorb does provide free switch-ins on Rain Dance teams, meaning you can make use of Encore/Yawn even more so against Pokemon like Kabutops/Gorebyss (look out for HP Grass!).
Quagsire’s drawbacks are few. His Grass weakness isn’t very difficult to deal with, as there are a plethora of Pokemon capable of taking any Grass-type attacks aimed at our little Quagmire. Quagsire honestly wishes he had higher stats. While Quagsire’s stats may be good, he simply wishes they were a little higher. His stats are just barely enough to make the cut, nothing in particular is absolutely fantastic either, they’re simply “decent”.
Quagsire @ Leftovers
Trait: Unaware/Water Absorb
EVs: 252 Hp/ 4 Atk/ 252 Def
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Hail
- Recover
- Blizzard / Boiling Water / Waterfall / Toxic / Yawn / Encore
- Earthquake / Toxic / Yawn
(One of) Quagsire’s biggest asset(s) to a hail team is the ability to reset the weather without having to risk Abomasnow dying and being able to check several deadly threats with Unaware. Hail allows Quagsire to reset the opponents weather, providing the team with a sort of “back up” hail. This will help ensure that the opponent’s weather simply doesn’t happen, leaving him in a rather crippled position (assuming they run a weather team). Recover will help Quagsire stay in tip top shape. The last few moves can be a touchy decision. Blizzard lets Quagsire abuse his own reset weather, but Boiling Water has the off chance of burning the opponent, while Waterfall simply works off his higher attacking stat. Toxic will help Quagsire with opposing bulky Water-type Pokemon (though I would think Abomasnow would be better at taking them on). Yawn and Encore can also be run to force other sweepers to switch out, forcing them to set up once more. Haze can also be put in somewhere, Quagsire isn’t going to last forever after all.
One of the most notable threats Quagsire is capable of checking is Doryuuzu. Many Doryuuzu operate in Sandstorm, meaning he gets double speed and can often be found atop a Balloon. While Doryuuzu uses Swords Dance, Quagsire will switch in and will generally 1) cripple Doryuuzu by resetting the weather, negating his Speed boost and forcing him out or 2) try to force a switch with Yawn/Encore.
Factoring in Leftovers, the only variants of Doryuuzu that are capable of 2HKO’ing Quagsire is Adamant Life Orb Doryuuzu, whom, from my knowledge, isn’t particularly common, as many people go in favor of Jolly Life Orb or Adamant Balloon Doryuuzu variants. From this point Quagsire can simply reset the weather and switch out to a Pokemon that isn’t afraid of Earthquake. Such partners might include Latias, Gliscor, etc. Quagsire shouldn’t try to stall anyone out as it’s just begging to be hit with a critical hit that will cause irreparable damage. Pokemon like Gliscor cannot touch Quagsire (although they can cripple him with poison), and often meet a frosty end. Blizzard does 87% - 102.8% to 252 Hp Neutral Nature Gliscor.
As mentioned before Water Absorb is a very fantastic ability, and should also be considered when building your team.
While Quagsire can efficiently make use of Hail, that isn’t the one function he serves on a hail team. Unaware is absolutely amazing, ignoring any and all boosts an opponent has will make him a very efficient check to Pokemon like Gliscor, Salamence, Doryuzuu, and Manaphy, threatening them with a 100% accurate Blizzard, Yawn, Encore, or the removal of the weather from which they so desperately depend on to be as amazing as they are. Keep in mind though that Quagsire is not a one-stop-shop to all of them, as Quagsire needs to be at full health to take on Pokemon like Salamence and Doryuuzu, or tailored (a little bit) more Special Defensively to take on threats like Manaphy (assuming Manaphy lacks Energy Ball, as most usually use Ice Beam/Surf/Rest/Boosting Move).
Quagsire loses out on all previous move tutor moves when using his Dream World ability Unaware.
Quagsire’s discussion thread can be found here.
Claydol
Claydol, great Space God in Japanese Mythology, we pray to thee to come forth and eliminate all entry hazards. Well, unfortunately, he’s can’t remove all entry hazards with just the use of words coming out of his many beaks, he does however, making a damn good Rapid Spinner. Our Starman is actually rather unique compared to many other Ground and Psyhic Pokemon. His typing is fantastic, a Psychic, Fighting, Poison, and Rock resistance coupled with an immunity to both Ground-type moves as well as Electric attacks on top of an immunity to both forms of Spikes and a resistances to Stealth Rock will give him quite the range of opportunity. His stats are impressive as well sporting 60/105/120 defenses, but his offenses are rather lackluster. 70/70/75 is pretty damn low, especially for a Psychic-type Pokemon. However, Claydol has access to a very good movepool, Stealth Rock, Rapid Spin, Cosmic Power, Psycho Shock, Reflect, Light Screen, Safeguard, Calm Mind, Ice Bea, Psychic, Shadow Ball, Stone Edge, Grass Knot, and Trick Room are all very useful. While Claydol may not be as great as it was back in Adv OU, he’s still very useful and has very many unique attributes that set him apart from other bulky Pokemon.
While Claydol may have inherited 6 fantastic resistances from his Psychic/Ground typing, he also has 6 crippling ones. Weakness to Dark, Ghost, Grass, Water, Bug, and Ice are not something to be proud of. Claydol’s also been given a great offensive movepool but his stats do not match up to that. For someone with so much defensive prowess it really shocks me that he has yet to have any sort of instant recovery move outside of Rest. It’s really rather ridiculous.
Claydol @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 Hp/ 144 Def/ 112 SAtk
Bold Nature (+ Def, -Atk)
- Rapid Spin
- Stealth Rock
- Earth Power
- Psycho Shock / Psychic
Claydol’s unique typing gives him a wide assortment of resistances, specifically to Close Combat, Stone Edge, Earthquake, and Thunder Wave, giving him ample opportunity to switch in on an assortment of attacks and Rapid Spin away entry hazards or set up some of our own. Rapid Spin and Stealth Rock are give-ins, and the moves of which Claydol will be making the most use of on a hail team. Earth Power and Psycho Shock/Psychic are our generic STAB moves, which provide a little bit of coverage as to not be completely and utterly walled. Psycho Shock and Psychic are simply whom you plan on hitting the hardest when considering the Fighting-types you’ll be encountering. Psycho Shock is safest to ensure you’ll be hitting Pokemon like Terrakion harder when considering that player’s like to use Sandstorm as a means of boosting his Special Defense to help allow more set up opportunities for his Rock Polish/Swords Dance sets.
While Claydol may not be a “counter”, he most certainly makes a good check to Pokemon like Terrakion. Claydol resists his entire movepool bar X-Scissor (which is uncommon).
Claydol has a high chance of being 2HKO’d when factoring in hail damage, meaning Claydol must be very careful when switching in and attacking. After two turns, Terrakion has taken 32% (assuming having attacked twice, only 22% having attacked once). Factoring Stealth Rock, that makes 28%-38% worth of damage. After a single turn factoring in a hit from Life Orb, Hail, and Stealth Rock, Terrakion would have taken 22% worth of damage.
This means that in order for Claydol to beat Terrakion, he must switch in on either Rock Polish, Swords Dance, or Earthquake, have had Hail up for a minimum of two turns, and hope that Terrakion has already used or uses Close Combat to guarantee that Psycho Shock will kill him. Of course however, life is made easier through Spikes and Toxic Spikes, netting more passive damage, making Terrakion much easier to kill. Considering common battle conditions, none of these are really that far of a stretch, making Claydol and ideal check to Terrakion assuming he’s healthy enough.
Claydol is honestly better geared towards more defensive sets because, while his movepool is great, he doesn’t have the offenses to pull off sweeping sets. Cosmic Power, Safeguard, Dual Screens, and Trick Room are all great options for him to run.
Claydol does not have a discussion thread at this point in time.
Pokemon up for being re-written:
Sableye
Starmie
Yuniran
Regice
Walrein
Swampert
Pokemon nominated to be added to the first post next update:
Shed Shell Dust Proof Forretress
Clefable (up for debate)
Cloyster (up for debate)
Glaceon
Gliscor
Zapdos
Latias
Latios
Arcticuno
???
What sets of the Pokemon that should be added to the first post are viable? What function would they serve? Which threats do they check? What kinds of threats to a hail team are not mentioned in the first post? Did I miss anything when writing up any Pokemon? Etc.
I'll try and reply to all the individual questions and stuff I'm just rather busy at the moment~
New Additions/Re writes:
Abomasnow
Ah; the metagame could use a little Christmas spirit, no? And whom is better fit to spread it other than the one and only Pokemon in the entire game who can boast the ability Snow Warning? Yes, Snow Warning is where the magic begins, as it lets Abomasnow bring a hailstorm unto the battlefield. Abomasnow’s stats are all average, sporting 90/75/85 defenses and decent 92/92/60 offenses. While being average isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it certainly isn’t a great thing, as Abomasnow has no outstanding stats to make use of his great movepool and decent offensive typing. Still, he could have been a lot worse, in fact, he’s pretty damn good as is!
Abomasnow is fairly versatile - Substitute + Leech Seed, Swords Dance and Choice Scarf are all very good options for him. Blizzard, Wood Hammer, Earthquake, Focus Punch, Ice Shard, Giga Drain are fantastic options to use in conjunction with his above possible sets. Most notably Abomasnow can sport two 120 base power STAB offensive moves, and in conjunction with Earthquake, can let him hit all opposing weather Pokemon for super effective damage.
Unfortunately, Abomasnow bears the burden of several crippling weaknesses. Weakness to Rock, Fighting, Fire (4x), Steel, Poison, Bug and Flying give Abomasnow a total of seven weaknesses, and thus widens the radius of his problems due to how common six of those weaknesses are. Typing wise though, he has several boons in a resistance to Grass, Water, Electric and Ground, which should give him several opportunities to switch in and reset the weather considering several of his best partners are Heatran, Walrien, Quagsire, Tentacruel, and many more! With teammates likes Rankurusu, Espeon, Nidoqueen, Sableye, Heatran, Forretress, Hariyama and Quagsire, Abomasnow should have few problems covering his many weaknesses.
Abomasnow @ Shed Shell/Leftovers
Trait: Snow Warning
EVs: 4 Def/ 252 SAtk/ 252 Spd
Modest (+SpA, -Atk)
- Blizzard
- Giga Drain
- Leech Seed
- Substitute
Abomasnow is best described as [/I]the[/I] “anti-metagame”, shutting down all opposing weathers, replacing whatever benefits they could be receiving with residual damage. The loss of Swift Swim, Sand Throw, Solar Power, Chlorophyll, the extra STAB bonus(es), and other such boosts they depend on can absolutely cripple opposing teams. How is this advantageous to hail? Well, to be quite honest, hail has no such boosts to depend on to work; only two abilities and a 120 base power move that by passes the accuracy check.
Blizzard and Giga Drain are give-ins, especially with Giga Drain’s base power buff and healing. Leech Seed and Substitute will help give Abomasnow some survivability. Substitute can give Abomasnow a defense against bulky waters he will usually find himself switching into, avoiding Toxic, and then recovering off the lost HP with Leech Seed (or Giga Drain), which will rack up quite the residual damage with entry hazards and hail. The choice between Shed Shell and Leftovers is simply which tier you find yourself playing in the most. Shed Shell is an absolute must for Dream World to avoid getting murdered by the ever popular Shanderra, while leftovers is more preferable for a Shanderra-less metagame.
Sets will vary. Some people will find it more efficient to run things like Wood Hammer or Ice Shard on more lead oriented Abomasnow sets. Whatever floats your boat, really.
A Choice Scarf set was mentioned before, was it not? With a set of Wood Hammer (or Giga Drain)/ Blizzard/ Earthquake/ Hidden Power [Fire]([Fighting]), Abomasnow will find himself able to severely damage opposing weather leads.
Code:
140 Atk / 116 SpA / 252 Spe
Wood Hammer (120 Base Power) vs. 252 Hp/ 152 Def Positive Nature Hippowdon: 46.2% - 54.8%
Wood Hammer (120 Base Power) vs. 252 Hp/ 4 Def Neutral Nature Hippowdon: 57.6% - 68.6%
Wood Hammer (120 Base Power) vs. 252 Hp/ 0 Def Neutral Nature Tyranitar: 63.9% - 75.7%
Wood Hammer (120 Base Power) vs. 252 Hp/ 4 Def Neutral Nature Politoed: 92.2% - 108.3%
Earthquake (100 Base Power) vs. 0 Hp/ 0 Def Neutral Nature Ninetails: 69% - 81.5%
Earthquake (100 Base Power) vs. 252 Hp/ 0 Def Neutral Nature Ninetails: 56.6% - 66.9%While the damage output may look promising, Abomasnow finds himself unable to guarantee a kill unless the weather inducer has taken prior damage (in Hippowdon‘s/Tyranitar‘s case, quite a bit). Choice Scarf sets are also more dangerous for Abomasnow because Stealth Rock and other entry hazards can chip away at his health, and you may not find the opportunity you need to Rapid Spin in order to get Abomasnow in the time you /need him to get in/. Wish Support could work fairly well (I suppose), just be careful.
Abomasnow’s discussion thread can be found here.
The Ghost of Christmas Past has returned, with her normal and fighting immunities still intact, and her Ghost/Ice STAB unmatched. Looking only at the stats, Froslass itself is fairly promising. 70/70/70 defenses are nothing to be proud of, and are, in fact, fairly mediocre. However, she sports 80/80/110 offenses (though, the offenses themselves may be a little lackluster), the most important part being that delicious 110 base speed stat. 108 is a popular number this generation, most notably found on our little musketeer quartet! Froslass has access to Spikes, Taunt, Destiny Bond, Ice Beam, Shadow Ball, Torment, Pain Split, and Trick, making Froslass quite capable in a variety of roles you could wish for it to fill.
Froslass suffers from Ghost, Dark, Rock, Fire, and Steel, weaknesses while Froslass’s resistances are nothing to be proud of due to her frailty. However, Normal and Fighting immunities as well as Spikes are absolutely invaluable for a hail team, racking up plenty of passive damage and many a switch in opportunities in which to accomplish her job.
Froslass @ Focus Sash
Trait: Cursed Body
EVs: 4 Hp/ 252 SAtk/ 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Spikes
- Taunt
- Destiny Bond / Shadow Ball
- Ice Beam
Froslass’s standard spiking set from last generation. With Taunt, Spikes, and 110 base speed, immunity to Fake-Out, and the ability to block Rapid Spin, Froslass, in theory, should have a relatively easy time setting up Spikes. However, Froslass runs into a slight problem this generation. With the advent of Mischievous Heart, Magic Mirror, and the Team Preview, Froslass is going to have difficulty maintaining position as a dedicated lead.
Mischievous Heart may not be too terribly difficult to handle, as all the Pokemon with this ability are fairly frail. Taunt will however render most of Froslass’s set useless for three turns, meaning she will either have to switch out or be 2HKO’d by almost any attack thrown in her direction. Magic Mirror users are also not a huge problem, as they are weak to Shadow Ball. 252 Hp/ 0 SDef Espeon takes 59.9% - 70.7% from Shadow Ball, meaning Espeon cannot stay in without facing the risk of being absolutely crippled. Espeon and Froslass also share the same base Speed, leading much up to speed ties and mind games.
The Team Preview is a pretty straightforward issue - the ability to switch a lead around to counter your “dedicated lead” Froslass. Froslass cannot risk not being in the lead position because it will be absolutely useless if it switches into Stealth Rock, breaking it’s sash and losing 25% health. Which, as we all know, is not a good thing for Froslass.
Froslass however has other sets it could run to circumvent these issues. A Hail abuse set revolving around Snow Cloak could make life easier, as Froslass has access to Blizzard, Thunder Wave, and Substitute. Froslass’s other options consist of the choice between his abilities (now that I’ve mentioned it). Cursed Body will let Froslass have a 30% chance of locking and opponent’s attack when hit by said move. This can be great for forcing switches, or , alternatively, making switches easier. However, Froslass loses out on all tutors, most notably the move Trick, by using this ability.
Froslass’s discussion thread can be read here.
Brrr! It’s cold in here! I say there must be something wrong with the oh god kill me. Rotom-F had a unique niche last generation on hail teams, boasting a powerful Blizzard, as well as a Normal/Fighting/Ground immunity, which, coupled with his standard Rest + Sleep Talk set, made him a fairly useful status absorber/Rapid Spin blocker. All the Rotom Formes this generation were (sort of) blessed with a secondary typing to replace their former Ghost-typing, matching the type of their signature move(s). With Rotom-F’s signature move being Blizzard, he got - you guessed it - Ice typing. What does this mean for us? Well, it means Rotom-F was stripped of almost any good resistance he had. On the bright side, he did lose a Ghost and Dark weakness, meaning he is no longer pursuit bait!
However, Rotom-F now suffers from a Rock, Fire, and Fighting weakness and lost his resistance to Bug, Steel, and an immunity to Normal/Fighting moves, which included the likes of Fake Out, Close Combat, Super Power etc. Rotom-F does retain an Electric, Ice (gained~) and Flying resistance as well as an immunity to Ground attacks though.
Rotom-F @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 Hp/ 120 Def/ 136 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Blizzard
- Volt Change
- Trick
With Rotom-F’s common weaknesses but good Special Attack and good defenses he himself is probably best adept at making use of a Choice Scarf. His Ice typing, despite the added weaknesses, has a silver lining: STAB Blizzard. Rotom-F also has this neat little thing - he is the only Pokemon to get STAB on both Electric and Ice attacks, give him quite the range of coverage with merely two attacks. Volt Change is the new Electric-typed U-turn, making a great pivot and scout. Trick is exceptionally useful for crippling tanks, walls, and other such Pokemon that would greatly prefer their current item than a Choice Scarf.
As a Choice Scarf user, switching in repeatedly with Stealth Rock on the field is going to absolutely murder him. As suggest for Hail teams in general, it is a good idea to run a Rapid Spin/Magic Mirror/Taunt Pokemon.
Looks like Froggy scarfed down another Chaos Emerald, turning himself into this giant volcano frog! Heatran was top-tier in Gen IV with his fantastic typing, great stats, and ability to check many threats. In Gen V, Heatran returns, his same typing and stats that put him in high OU proving to be just as useful as they were then as they are now. 91/106/106 defenses are great, making him rather bulky. 90/130/77 offenses may leave a little to be desired (77 Speed is rather underwhelming), but his 130 base Special Attack stat cannot be ignored, and can actually be compared with the massive power creep this generation has had. With Fire Blast, Overheat, Lava Plume, Earth Power, Dragon Pulse, Stealth Rock, Torment, Taunt, Roar, Will-O-Wisp, Rest, Sleep Talk, and an amazing ability in Flash Fire, Heatran should be considered for each and every hail team.
A 4x resistance to Steel, Grass, Bug, Ice and 2x resistances to Normal, Flying, Psychic, Ghost, Dark, and Dragon, gives Heatran a plethora of resistances to work with, and he has only 3 weaknesses in exchange. Unfortunately, those weaknesses can be quite bad for him. A Fighting weakness puts him in the same situation many other members on a hail team suffer from: Coulrophobia. His Water and Ground weaknesses are easily manageable. Abomasnow, Latias, Shinpora, the teammates bountiful.
Heatran @ Balloon
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 Def/ 252 SAtk/ 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Dragon Pulse
- Stealth Rock / Hidden Power [Grass] / Stone Edge
The Balloon is a blessing my dear friends. Many Pokemon with a Ground weakness are now perfectly capable of saving their own asses thanks to this stroke of genius by someone over at Nintendo. With the Balloon, Heatran’s largest problem - his Siesmophobia - is alleviated by this item, giving him plenty of free switch-ins. Unfortunately for Heatran this makes taking advantage of any resistance granted by his wonderful typing hard. The Balloon is, unfortunately, a one use item, being popped when hit with any sort of damaging attack that he isn’t immune to. This means that Heatran users must decide between maintaining his temporary immunity to his largest weakness or switching in on a deadly (resisted, no immune) attack aimed at another teammate.
His set is pretty much a carbon copy from last generation’s Stealth Rock Lead set. All the moves are standard, the last slot being up to you. There are several interesting options here that should all be taken into account, but should only be chosen based on the needs of your team. Stealth Rock is great in general, and should be considered, but if you’re running say, Forretress along side him, it might not be as useful. Hidden Power [Grass] lets him hit bulky water Pokemon like Swampert, but that could be better left to Abomasnow, who, has an easy time walling many water Pokemon. Stone Edge could be used as a little surprise, as Heatran utterly walls most Ulgamoth, and this could be used to outright kill him with ease.
Heatran is perfectly capable of running more defensive sets. Why with access to the aforementioned Taunt, Torment, Will-O-Wisp, Lava Plume, etc, he could be very useful. Unfortunately, SubTorment sets are not recommended. With Substitute, Heatran will lose 25% and cannot recover it with Leftovers, making it a rather large issue when using it in Hail. Heatran can also use more offensive oriented sets, such as Life Orb and Choice Scarf.
Heatran’s Dream World ability is the worst of trash. Flame Body is absolutely useless, but that’s not such a bad thing! Because it is so useless, you know how access to all that Gen IV and Gen V have to offer with no downsides whatsoever.
Heatran’s discussion thread can be found here.
Steel Pokemon are often top-tier Pokemon and very powerful in their own right, boasting impressive defenses and rather lovely offenses. On top of this, Ice Pokemon have a weakness to Steel, making it one of the bigger issues a hail team must prepare for. With our own little piece of Roswell, New Mexico, we should be able to lessen the problem considerably. Magnezone boasts fantastic 70/115/90 defenses (which become even better coupled with his 13 resistances), and 70/130/60 offenses, paying special attention to his wonderful 130 base Special Attack. Magnezone’s true usefulness lies in his ability: Magnet Pull. The ability to trap Steel Pokemon can be invaluable, providing hail teams with a fantastic and easy to use way of eliminating a very prominent type of Pokemon.
Magnezone’s resistances include Normal, Electric, Grass, Ice, Poison (immunity), Flying (4x), Psychic, Bug, Rock, Ghost, Dragon, Dark, and Steel (4x), with only 3 weaknesses: Fire, Fighting, and Ground (4x). Magnezone has lots of synergy with Pokemon like Latias and Kyurem, creating the infamous “2Drag1Mag” strategy.
Magnezone @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Magnet Pull
EVs: 4 Hp/ 252 SAtk/ 252 Spd
Timid Nature (-Atk, +Spd)
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Volt Change
Essentially the exact same set as last generation, only with Volt Change over the newly nerfed Explosion. There isn’t much to say. Magnezone, while a fantastic Pokemon, has a shallow movepool. It is not suggested to use a Substitute Steel Killer set due to it suffering the same problems Heatran would suffer from. Magnezone’s other options include Dual Screens, and making use of moves like Discharge, Magnet Rise, and Metal Sound. Other sets could be Life Orb, Choice Specs (though, the low speed could be off putting), and uh, well, that’s it actually.
Magnezone vs. Magneton
Magnezone and Magneton, while virtually the same Pokemon, have one large difference between them that gives Magneton any reason whatsoever to be chosen over Magnezone: his Speed stat. A base 70 Speed is quite higher than a base 60 Speed, allowing Magneton to outrun more threats, and, with his 120 base Special Attack stat, take them out just as Magnezone would (hopefully). Unfortunately for Magneton, he suffers from lesser bulk and a lesser attacking stat, giving him issues such as switching in and taking hits and the possibility of missing out on KO’s Magnezone could achieve.
Some people will look to Miracle of Evolution as a way to mitigate the bulk issue.
Code:
Magnezone vs. Magneton [Bulk]
Magnezone
Hp: 70
Def: 115
SDef: 90
0/0/0 Neutral Nature: 281/266/216
Magneton
Hp: 50
Def: 95
SDef: 70
0/0/0 Neutral Nature: 241/226/176
252/0/0 Neutral Nature [Evo Stone]: 304/339/264As you can clearly see, yes, Magneton ends up much bulkier than an un-invested Magnezone, but at what cost? Magnezone does not get Leftovers recovery when using Miracle of Evolution, meaning he will get ruined by hail damage due to having no form of recovery outside of Rest. On top of this, he won’t be able to outspeed /any/ of the threats Magnezone was capable of outrunning because Magneton cannot use two items at once, essentially making the whole idea of using Miracle of Evolution utterly useless.
The biggest (most important*) thing worth comparing is their Speed Stat. Magneton with maxed out Speed will end up with 262 as his number. With a Choice Scarf, he hits 393, allowing him to outrun all base 125’s (just barely missing out on being able to outspeed base 130’s). Magnezone is only capable of outrunning all base 110’s (just barely missing out on being able to outrun all base 115’s). This widens Magneton’s range of Pokemon, letting him check more threats. However, you’ll have to decide whether the Speed or Bulk and Power are more important when choosing between them.
Magnezone’s discussion thread can be found here.
Espeon enters the fifth generation as one of two Pokemon to receive the new ability “Magic Mirror”. What does this mean for Espeon? Why, it just makes Espeon one of the best utility Pokemon in the game due to it’s ability to reflect back at the opponent any non-damaging move (read as: it works like Mirror Coat without having to waste a moveslot). This lets Espeon function well on a variety of teams who have trouble with things like Taunt, entry hazards, Spore, etc. Looking at Espeon’s stats, her defenses are rather horrible. 65/60/95 is nothing to be proud of. However, her offenses, 65/130/110, are fantastic. A 110 speed is very valuable and a 130 Special Attack stat is something to fear. With access to moves like Baton Pass, Reflect, Morning Sun, Psycho Shock, Calm Mind, Shadow Ball, and Grass Knot, Espeon can pull of both offensive and defensive sets that hail teams could find very useful.
Immediately many of you will notice that I didn’t mention absolute gems like Wish, Charm, Fake Tears, Tickle, or Yawn. Magic Mirror Espeon is an event Dream World Pokemon, making him Male only. This means Espeon cannot have Magic Mirror and Egg moves (together), missing out on several very useful support options. How unfortunate for us. Oh, it should also be mentioned that Morning Sun, while a good move, should never be run on a Hail team due to it only recovering ¼ of her health.
Espeon’s flaws outside of important illegal move combinations stem from its stats and typing, as well as the Team Preview function. Espeon is frail. There is no other way to describe or sugarcoat it. 65/60/95 is almost horrible, and still leaves much to be desired. This will make Espeon very vulnerable to any sort of priority attack, even resisted ones. It’s typing is a blessing in a metagame infested with Fighting-type Pokemon, but also makes it vulnerable to the Dark and Bug moves that many Fighting-type Pokemon will be carrying.
The Team Preview hurts your ability to play Espeon a little bit. With Espeon being able to switch in at any time your opponent will more than likely be very weary of laying hazards down. This could cost Espeon on a switch in if you mispredict, but you also must weigh the cost and the rewards. Losing (or crippling) Espeon is obviously not something you want to do, but it can also keep several Pokemon in check and prevent hazards from being lain down, which, depending on your team, may be well worth it.
Espeon @ Leftovers
Trait: Magic Mirror
EVs: 248 Hp/ 12 Def/ 248 Spd
Timid Nature (-Atk, +Spd)
- Baton Pass
- Reflect
- Psychic / Psycho Shock
- Hidden Power [Fire]
Last generation many players liked to describe the plethora of Psychic Pokemon as “Pursuit bait”, and, unfortunately for many of us, they did not have (m)any way(s) of escaping Pokemon like Tyranitar (making the name rather fitting). Espeon however, is lucky. It has access to the wonderful move Baton Pass, letting it escape slow Pursuit users like Tyranitar (although, Choice Scarf sets will pose a problem). Reflect is absolutely integral to playing Espeon, as it provides a little bit of team support on top of temporarily remedying Espeon’s abysmal Defense stat.
Code:
248 Hp/ 12 Def Timid Espeon under Reflect
252 Atk Jolly Tyranitar Crunch: (59.88% - 70.66%)
252 Atk Jolly Tyranitar Pursuit: (30.54% - 35.93%)
252 Atk Adamant Choice Band Scizor Bullet Punch: (35.93% - 42.51%)
252 Atk Adamant Choice Band Scizor Pursuit: (47.90% - 56.89%)A Special thanks to IcyMan28, from whom I borrowed these useful calculations from : )
Under Reflect all of Espeon’s old banes fail to kill her. This means Espeon (having set up Reflect) can simply run away to the appropriate counter with Baton Pass while giving the rest of the team a temporary Iron Defense.
Espeon loves her Speed stat, and this EV spread reflects that. With 248 Speed (when accounting for Hidden Power [Fire]’s single point drop), Espeon is capable of outrunning all 108 base Pokemon - a very important number. With this Speed stat, Espeon can outrun Infernape, and, most importantly, our Musketeer Quartet (or Trio, depending on which tier you play). This will let Espeon effectively “check them” because of her dangerous Psychic-STAB. Psychic and Psycho Shock are a coin toss for whom is a bigger problem to your team. Psychic is obviously better for Pokemon like Breloom and Infernape, Kerudio, Roobushin, and Terrakion. However, boosted Kerudio and Virizion will be dealt much more damage with Psycho Shock. It should be noted that a new trend in Roobushin is to invest heavily in Special Defense to ensure that they aren’t murdered by a Shanderra Overheat, and that many Terrakion are run on Sandstorm teams. Depending on whether these are more frequent for you or not, it can actually be better to run Psycho Shock.
Espeon’s ability also lets her do fairly decent damage to many common Pokemon charged with the duty of setting down Spikes, most notably, Skarmory, Nattorei, and Forretress.
code]
0 SAtk Hidden Power [Fire] (70 Base Power)
252 Hp/ 252 Def Impish Nattorei: (63.6% - 75%)
252 Hp/ 252 SDef Sassy Nattorei: (46.6% - 55.7%)
252 Hp/ 240 Def Impish Skarmory: (50.9% - 59.9%)
252 Hp/ 240 SDef Careful Skarmory: (34.7% - 41.3%)
252 Hp/ 144 Def Relaxed Forretress: (108.5% - 127.7%)
252 Hp/ 252 Def Sassy Forretress: (70.1% - 83.6%)
[/code]
Very promising damage output. Due to Espeon reflecting back any non-damaging move they may carry on their individual sets (more than likely a lot of them), it makes me wonder what kind of physical damage Espeon is able to deal from them with when under Reflect.
Code:
248 Hp/ 12 Def/ 248 Spd Espeon
0 Atk Nattorei Power Whip: (28.1% - 32.9%)
0 Atk Nattorei Gyro Ball: (43.8% - 52%)
0 Atk Skarmory Brave Bird: (24.5% - 29%)
0 Atk Forretress Gyro Ball: (29% - 34.4%)Still promising! Espeon will serve well on a hail team as a check to dangerous fighting-type Pokemon as well as common entry hazard setters.
Espeon loses out on all previous generation move tutors, egg moves, and event moves when using her Dream World ability Magic Mirror.
Espeon’s discussion thread can be found here.
Gothiruselle is one of three fully evolved Pokemon to have ever received the ability Shadow Tag since it‘s debut in Generation III. Gothiruselle does not have Wobbuffet’s bulk, nor Shanderra’s massive Special Attack Stat. What Gothiruselle has over the two of them however is the capability to be able to perform both offensive and defensive roles. 70/95/110 defenses are nothing to scoff at, and it allows Gothiruselle to be relatively bulky on both sides of the spectrum. 55/95/65 are however pretty below average for offenses, the only good thing about them being her decent 95 base Special Attack Stat. What should give Gothiruselle any consideration whatsoever is her ability to make use of Charm, Tickle, and Fake Tears in conjunction with Shadow Tag (Wobbuffet only having access to Tickle). Charm, Tickle, Fake Tears, Captivate, Reflect, Light Screen, Thunder Wave, Safeguard, Taunt, Pyscho Shock, Thunderbolt, Shadow Ball, and Grass Knot, that pretty much sums up her movepool. Very good support moves, and several great offensive ones.
Gothiruselle’s largest drawback by far is her instant recovery deficiency. Gothiruselle does not have any sort of instant recovery outside of Rest. No Recover, no Wish, no Moonlight, zip. Which is unfortunate for a Psychic Pokemon to be quite honest. However, Rest does cure her susceptibility to Status, and Taunt will shut down any opposing Pokemon’s attempts to phaze, set up, or inflict poison on her, which, is pretty nice actually. With Gothiruselle’s ability to cripple the opponents Walls/Tanks/Slow Bulky Pokemon, and then outright kill them, she’s perfectly capable of breaking the opponent’s core.
Gothiruselle (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Shadow Tag
EVs: 252 Hp/ 208 Def/ 44 Spd
Bold (+Def, -Atk)
- Tickle / Charm / Fake Tears / Captivate
- Psychic / Psycho Shock
- Rest / Calm Mind
- Taunt
With four de-buffers at her disposal, it all comes down to which you feel would be most efficient. For more defensive sets, Charm and Captivate are the top two choices. Charm and Captivate will lower the opponents Attack and Special Attack respectively, making her great for switching into certain walls like Skarmory, Hippowdon, for example, a combination of Taunt and Charm absolutely crippling them. Tickle and Fake Tears should be used for more offensive sets. Tickle should be used in conjunction with Psycho Shock because it lowers the opponents Attack and Defense simultaneously, while Fake Tears is more suited for use with Psychic. Rest and Taunt are very important to this set. Taunt will shut down the opponent for exactly three turns. No phazing, no set up, nothing. Taunt will also allow you to use Rest successively, having you wake up the turn after the Taunt has ended, letting you repeat the cycle.
The EV spread is tailored on the more defensive side of things. 44 Speed evs were thrown to avoid being out sped by minimum speed Skarmory, with the rest thrown into her defenses. Oh, it should be noted that when running this spread, you get outran by 16 Spd Skarmory, meaning, if this is a problem, you should be running 252 Hp/ 196 Def/ 60 Spd.
No defensive Pokemon is complete without damage calculations, no?
Code:
252 Hp/ 208 Def/ 44 Spd Gothiruselle
(-0) Roobushin Payback: (57% - 67.4%)
(-1) Roobushin Payback: (38.4% - 45.3%)
(-2) Roobushin Payback: (29.1% - 34.3%)
(-3) Roobushin Payback: (22.7% - 27.3%)
(-4) Roobushin Payback: (19.8% - 23.3%)
Total damage assuming having used Charm twice: (48.9% - 57.6%)
(-0) Skarmory Brave Bird: (24.4% - 28.8%)
(-1) Skarmory Brave Bird: (16% - 19.2%)
(-0) Hippowdon Earthquake: (27% - 31.7%)
(-1) Hippowdon Earthquake: (17.7% - 21.2%)The results are particularly interesting. Gothiruselle is perfectly capable of taking out the slower threats on an opponents team from the looks of this. Gothiruselle also has several other useful sets to make use of. A Status Platform, Choice Specs, and Calm Mind are the very first ones to spring up. A status platform may not be spectacular for a hail team due to how often Toxic Spikes are used, but if you’re looking for someone to spread paralysis she should be fairly useful. Choice Specs are deadly, allowing her to trap and decimate opposing Fighting-type Pokemon, though Shanderra, even with less bulk, may find himself more adept at that role. Calm Mind is more defensively oriented, trapping Pokemon that cant touch her and then setting up. Should work fairly similarly to Calm Mind Shanderra.
Gothiruselle’s discussion thread can be found here.
The Shadow Tag discussion thread can be found here.
Tyranitar has always been held in our highest regards ever since his debut in Generation II. Tyranitar was blessed with a very generous BST and an offensive movepool that many Pokemon would kill for. From his BST Tyranitar received 134/95/61 offenses, which made him very deadly, and was even given solid 100/110/100 defenses to boot! Things could only get better from there, as Tyranitar was given Sandstream, an ability that summoned a permanent Sandstorm, boosting his already very good Special Defense by 50%. With access to moves like Rock Slide, Earthquake, Crunch, Stone Edge, Pursuit, Superpower, Focus Punch, Aqua Tail, Fire Punch, Dragon Tail, Flamethrower, Ice Beam, Blizzard, Thunderbolt, Focus Blast, Thunder Wave, Stealth Rock, Curse, and Dragon Dance, Tyranitar has a plethora of options at his disposal to be used in a variety of roles.
Interestingly enough, Tyranitar was given a new ability in Generation V, Tension. While Tension in itself may seem useless, it’s more of what Tyranitar does no longer do when he has this ability. Tyranitar no longer permanently sets up a Sandstorm, letting Hail have free reign! This lets you take advantage of Tyranitar’s ability to pick off Pursuit weak Pokemon without negating any of hail’s benefits (such as passive damage and 100% accurate Blizzards).
Unfortunately for Tyranitar he has several big flaws. Most notably, his weakness to common attacking types. Bug, Ground, Fighting, Water, Steel, and Grass[. From those types, Tyranitar is also priority weak, suffering from a vulnerability to Mach Punch, Aqua Jet, and Bullet Punch. Another weakness comes from his Dream World ability, which will alienate him from all previous generation move tutors and event moves and strip him from his 50% Special Defense Boost. However, because Tyranitar’s weaknesses are so common, they should be relatively easy to cover. A Ghost Pokemon comes to mind.
Tyranitar @ Choice Band
Trait: Anxiety
EVs: 180 Hp/ 252 Atk/ 76 Spd
Adamant (+Atk, -SpA)
- Pursuit
- Crunch
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
Tyranitar is probably best when employing this set, making wonderful use of a Choice Band. With Pokemon like Abomasnow and Forretress, one would wonder whom would be best equipped to take out the ever popular Shanderra. Tyranitar takes a measly 31.9% - 37.8% from a Shanderra Overheat (in hail of course), making him an ideal switch in when baiting that attack with the likes of Forretress and Abomasnow. Shanderra is absolutely ruined whether he stays in or switches out, as Tyranitar does 92% - 108.8% with Pursuit. Tyranitar still remains the same powerhouse he’s always been, and is still capable of picking off weaker threats with his good defenses and high offenses.
Tyranitar can make use of many other sets. Choice Scarf, Dragon Dance, TyraniBoah, and other such Mixed attackers all come to mind. If you’re really into using both Tyranitar and Hail, you could also always try a “Dirty Snow” strategy. Oh, it’s also worth noting that Tyranitar has access to Blizzard, meaning he can make perfect use of it when wielding a Choice Scarf.
Tyranitar’s discussion thread can be found here.
Quagsire
Everyone generation always get’s a “derpy” Pokemon. Fortunately for us, Quagsire is absolutely adorable. It’s a shame that he’s such an underrated Pokemon though. Last generation Quagsire was made famous for his performance in Ubers as one of the greatest checks to that one of that metagame‘s most dominant forces, Kyogre. Water/Ground has always been fantastic typing, sporting resistances to Rock, Fire, Steel, Poison, and an immunity to Electric-type attacks. Quagsire’s defenses are rather good too, as 95/85/65 makes him capable of taking many hits aimed at him (just barely missing out on being 2HKO’d by this Generation’s more popular offensive threats) but his offenses are a little low, 85/65/35 isn‘t something I‘d describe as “spectacular”. Luckily, Quagsire has quite the movepool to make up for his lack of offensive prowess, Haze, Encore, Yawn, Recover, Amnesia, Stockpile, Sleep Talk, Counter, Earthquake, Hail, Blizzard, Rock Slide and Stone Edge are just fantastic.
If his movepool, typing, and stats weren’t enough, Quagsire has two amazing abilities at his disposal: Unaware and Water Absorb. Water Absorb has it’s uses, letting Quagsire switch into powerful Water attacks and recover off 25% of his health, Unaware may find itself a little bit more useful. With powerhouses like Doryuuzu running amok, Quagsire can prevent sweeps with his ability to ignore the opponents boosts, and simply Recover off damage or reset the weather with Hail. However, Water Absorb does provide free switch-ins on Rain Dance teams, meaning you can make use of Encore/Yawn even more so against Pokemon like Kabutops/Gorebyss (look out for HP Grass!).
Quagsire’s drawbacks are few. His Grass weakness isn’t very difficult to deal with, as there are a plethora of Pokemon capable of taking any Grass-type attacks aimed at our little Quagmire. Quagsire honestly wishes he had higher stats. While Quagsire’s stats may be good, he simply wishes they were a little higher. His stats are just barely enough to make the cut, nothing in particular is absolutely fantastic either, they’re simply “decent”.
Quagsire @ Leftovers
Trait: Unaware/Water Absorb
EVs: 252 Hp/ 4 Atk/ 252 Def
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Hail
- Recover
- Blizzard / Boiling Water / Waterfall / Toxic / Yawn / Encore
- Earthquake / Toxic / Yawn
(One of) Quagsire’s biggest asset(s) to a hail team is the ability to reset the weather without having to risk Abomasnow dying and being able to check several deadly threats with Unaware. Hail allows Quagsire to reset the opponents weather, providing the team with a sort of “back up” hail. This will help ensure that the opponent’s weather simply doesn’t happen, leaving him in a rather crippled position (assuming they run a weather team). Recover will help Quagsire stay in tip top shape. The last few moves can be a touchy decision. Blizzard lets Quagsire abuse his own reset weather, but Boiling Water has the off chance of burning the opponent, while Waterfall simply works off his higher attacking stat. Toxic will help Quagsire with opposing bulky Water-type Pokemon (though I would think Abomasnow would be better at taking them on). Yawn and Encore can also be run to force other sweepers to switch out, forcing them to set up once more. Haze can also be put in somewhere, Quagsire isn’t going to last forever after all.
One of the most notable threats Quagsire is capable of checking is Doryuuzu. Many Doryuuzu operate in Sandstorm, meaning he gets double speed and can often be found atop a Balloon. While Doryuuzu uses Swords Dance, Quagsire will switch in and will generally 1) cripple Doryuuzu by resetting the weather, negating his Speed boost and forcing him out or 2) try to force a switch with Yawn/Encore.
Code:
252 Hp/ 252 Def Unaware Quagsire
252 Atk Adamant Balloon Doryuuzu Earthquake (100 Base Power): (37.6% - 44.4%)
252 Atk Adamant Life Orb Doryuuzu Earthquake (100 Base Power): (49% - 57.9%)
252 Atk Jolly Balloon Doryuuzu Earthquake (100 Base Power): (34.3% - 40.4%)
252 Atk Jolly Life Orb Doryuuzu Earthquake (100 Base Power): (44.2% - 52%)Factoring in Leftovers, the only variants of Doryuuzu that are capable of 2HKO’ing Quagsire is Adamant Life Orb Doryuuzu, whom, from my knowledge, isn’t particularly common, as many people go in favor of Jolly Life Orb or Adamant Balloon Doryuuzu variants. From this point Quagsire can simply reset the weather and switch out to a Pokemon that isn’t afraid of Earthquake. Such partners might include Latias, Gliscor, etc. Quagsire shouldn’t try to stall anyone out as it’s just begging to be hit with a critical hit that will cause irreparable damage. Pokemon like Gliscor cannot touch Quagsire (although they can cripple him with poison), and often meet a frosty end. Blizzard does 87% - 102.8% to 252 Hp Neutral Nature Gliscor.
As mentioned before Water Absorb is a very fantastic ability, and should also be considered when building your team.
While Quagsire can efficiently make use of Hail, that isn’t the one function he serves on a hail team. Unaware is absolutely amazing, ignoring any and all boosts an opponent has will make him a very efficient check to Pokemon like Gliscor, Salamence, Doryuzuu, and Manaphy, threatening them with a 100% accurate Blizzard, Yawn, Encore, or the removal of the weather from which they so desperately depend on to be as amazing as they are. Keep in mind though that Quagsire is not a one-stop-shop to all of them, as Quagsire needs to be at full health to take on Pokemon like Salamence and Doryuuzu, or tailored (a little bit) more Special Defensively to take on threats like Manaphy (assuming Manaphy lacks Energy Ball, as most usually use Ice Beam/Surf/Rest/Boosting Move).
Quagsire loses out on all previous move tutor moves when using his Dream World ability Unaware.
Quagsire’s discussion thread can be found here.
Claydol, great Space God in Japanese Mythology, we pray to thee to come forth and eliminate all entry hazards. Well, unfortunately, he’s can’t remove all entry hazards with just the use of words coming out of his many beaks, he does however, making a damn good Rapid Spinner. Our Starman is actually rather unique compared to many other Ground and Psyhic Pokemon. His typing is fantastic, a Psychic, Fighting, Poison, and Rock resistance coupled with an immunity to both Ground-type moves as well as Electric attacks on top of an immunity to both forms of Spikes and a resistances to Stealth Rock will give him quite the range of opportunity. His stats are impressive as well sporting 60/105/120 defenses, but his offenses are rather lackluster. 70/70/75 is pretty damn low, especially for a Psychic-type Pokemon. However, Claydol has access to a very good movepool, Stealth Rock, Rapid Spin, Cosmic Power, Psycho Shock, Reflect, Light Screen, Safeguard, Calm Mind, Ice Bea, Psychic, Shadow Ball, Stone Edge, Grass Knot, and Trick Room are all very useful. While Claydol may not be as great as it was back in Adv OU, he’s still very useful and has very many unique attributes that set him apart from other bulky Pokemon.
While Claydol may have inherited 6 fantastic resistances from his Psychic/Ground typing, he also has 6 crippling ones. Weakness to Dark, Ghost, Grass, Water, Bug, and Ice are not something to be proud of. Claydol’s also been given a great offensive movepool but his stats do not match up to that. For someone with so much defensive prowess it really shocks me that he has yet to have any sort of instant recovery move outside of Rest. It’s really rather ridiculous.
Claydol @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 Hp/ 144 Def/ 112 SAtk
Bold Nature (+ Def, -Atk)
- Rapid Spin
- Stealth Rock
- Earth Power
- Psycho Shock / Psychic
Claydol’s unique typing gives him a wide assortment of resistances, specifically to Close Combat, Stone Edge, Earthquake, and Thunder Wave, giving him ample opportunity to switch in on an assortment of attacks and Rapid Spin away entry hazards or set up some of our own. Rapid Spin and Stealth Rock are give-ins, and the moves of which Claydol will be making the most use of on a hail team. Earth Power and Psycho Shock/Psychic are our generic STAB moves, which provide a little bit of coverage as to not be completely and utterly walled. Psycho Shock and Psychic are simply whom you plan on hitting the hardest when considering the Fighting-types you’ll be encountering. Psycho Shock is safest to ensure you’ll be hitting Pokemon like Terrakion harder when considering that player’s like to use Sandstorm as a means of boosting his Special Defense to help allow more set up opportunities for his Rock Polish/Swords Dance sets.
While Claydol may not be a “counter”, he most certainly makes a good check to Pokemon like Terrakion. Claydol resists his entire movepool bar X-Scissor (which is uncommon).
Code:
252 Atk/ 252 Spd Jolly Life Orb Terrakion vs. 252 Hp/ 144 Def/ 112 SAtk Bold Claydol
+0 Close Combat (120 Base Power): (29.9% - 35.2%)
+2 Close Combat (120 Base Power): (59.6% - 70.4%)
+0 Stone Edge (100 Base Power): (24.7% - 29.3%)
+2 Stone Edge (100 Base Power): (49.7% - 58.3%)
252 Hp/ 252 Def Bold Claydol
+0 Close Combat (120 Base Power): (27.5% - 32.4%)
+2 Close Combat (120 Base Power): (54.6% - 64.2%)
+0 Stone Edge (100 Base Power): (22.8% - 26.9%)
+2 Stone Edge (100 Base Power): (45.4% - 53.4%)Claydol has a high chance of being 2HKO’d when factoring in hail damage, meaning Claydol must be very careful when switching in and attacking. After two turns, Terrakion has taken 32% (assuming having attacked twice, only 22% having attacked once). Factoring Stealth Rock, that makes 28%-38% worth of damage. After a single turn factoring in a hit from Life Orb, Hail, and Stealth Rock, Terrakion would have taken 22% worth of damage.
Code:
Claydol Psycho Shock vs. 0/0 Terrakion
4 SAtk Evs: (44.6% - 52.6%)
112 SAtk Evs: (50.8% - 60.1%)
Stealth Rock + 2 turns of Hail (or two layers of Spikes) + Life Orb = 28%
Min damage considering this (4 SAtk EVs): 72%
Min damage considering this (112 SAtk EVs): 78%
Claydol Psycho Shock vs. [b]-1[/b] 0/0 Terrakion
4 SAtk Evs: (65.6% - 78%)
112 SAtk Evs: (76.2% - 89.8%)
Stealth Rock + 2 turns of Hail (or two layers of Spikes) + Life Orb = 28%
Min damage considering this (4 SAtk EVs): 93%
Min damage considering this (112 SAtk EVs): 104%This means that in order for Claydol to beat Terrakion, he must switch in on either Rock Polish, Swords Dance, or Earthquake, have had Hail up for a minimum of two turns, and hope that Terrakion has already used or uses Close Combat to guarantee that Psycho Shock will kill him. Of course however, life is made easier through Spikes and Toxic Spikes, netting more passive damage, making Terrakion much easier to kill. Considering common battle conditions, none of these are really that far of a stretch, making Claydol and ideal check to Terrakion assuming he’s healthy enough.
Claydol is honestly better geared towards more defensive sets because, while his movepool is great, he doesn’t have the offenses to pull off sweeping sets. Cosmic Power, Safeguard, Dual Screens, and Trick Room are all great options for him to run.
Claydol does not have a discussion thread at this point in time.
Pokemon up for being re-written:
Sableye
Starmie
Yuniran
Regice
Walrein
Swampert
Pokemon nominated to be added to the first post next update:
Shed Shell Dust Proof Forretress
Clefable (up for debate)
Cloyster (up for debate)
Glaceon
Gliscor
Zapdos
Latias
Latios
Arcticuno
???
What sets of the Pokemon that should be added to the first post are viable? What function would they serve? Which threats do they check? What kinds of threats to a hail team are not mentioned in the first post? Did I miss anything when writing up any Pokemon? Etc.
I'll try and reply to all the individual questions and stuff I'm just rather busy at the moment~
Gen 5 just nearl skips hail while giving every other weathers get better abusers, but we cant have everything
Maybe Kyremu will get a new form that will dominate with hail like the one that giratina got because we cant expect a metal turkey to be on the cover of pokemon gray
also, scarfed gardevoir or P2 can be good on hail teams to stop other weather abusers if abomasnow is down and jynx can spread sleep
The only thing that bothers me is that you called froslass a "he"...
Maybe Kyremu will get a new form that will dominate with hail like the one that giratina got because we cant expect a metal turkey to be on the cover of pokemon gray
also, scarfed gardevoir or P2 can be good on hail teams to stop other weather abusers if abomasnow is down and jynx can spread sleep
The only thing that bothers me is that you called froslass a "he"...
Depends really. Forretress is better if you want it to specialize, but Froslass can also act as an emergency spinblocker.
Forretress, it can do things
wtf can frosslass do? sure it spikes but I could use nattorei for that..
(also forry has Toxic Spikes :D)
No love for thw wonderful new Magic Guard Alakazam? Come on, gotta have some speedy offense!
Alaka-damn @ Life Orb
4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 HP
~Charge Beam
~Psycho Shock
~Focus Blast
~Energy Ball
Psycho Shock is of course a wonderfull stab option for Alaka-damn, while allowing it to hit Blisssey and CM Rankurusu much harder. Charge Beam can be used to finish off a pokemon on it's last leg for the KO, AND a likely boost. Focus Blast rapes Tyranitar, while Energy Ball can heavily dent, and most likeley OHKO, Hippowdon and Politoed. Ninetales can just take a STAB Psycho Shock, or even a Charge Beam, down the throat. (if anyone uses this, you must refer to it as Alaka-damn. no joke)
Tentacruel with Hail / Toxic Spikes / Rapid Spin / Boil Over is also a very good 'mon to use on a hail team, as it resists the horrible fighting and fire type attacks that Hail teams generally fear.
Alaka-damn @ Life Orb
4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 HP
~Charge Beam
~Psycho Shock
~Focus Blast
~Energy Ball
Psycho Shock is of course a wonderfull stab option for Alaka-damn, while allowing it to hit Blisssey and CM Rankurusu much harder. Charge Beam can be used to finish off a pokemon on it's last leg for the KO, AND a likely boost. Focus Blast rapes Tyranitar, while Energy Ball can heavily dent, and most likeley OHKO, Hippowdon and Politoed. Ninetales can just take a STAB Psycho Shock, or even a Charge Beam, down the throat. (if anyone uses this, you must refer to it as Alaka-damn. no joke)
Tentacruel with Hail / Toxic Spikes / Rapid Spin / Boil Over is also a very good 'mon to use on a hail team, as it resists the horrible fighting and fire type attacks that Hail teams generally fear.
For the love of god just use Psychic. You don't know how many times I've used Psycho Shock on a Pokemon that should be always OHKO'd by Alakazam (Gliscor, Cofagrigus, Zapdos, and pals) only to have it survive by a large margin and ruin me. It's just a largely over-hyped and disappointing attack.
Reuniclus, Latios, Latias, Starmie, & Slowbro are practically the only Pokemon that should be using Psycho Shock. (Starmie is even iffy)
Sacrificing your only STAB for a weaker move that sort of defeats the purpose of your own Pokemon, it's kind of...dumb.
It's like the episode when Ash traded his Butterfree for a Raticate. You'll constantly be going "I'll just OHKO this thing with Psychi-!...Oh..."
But on a side note, Encore over Energy Ball. Hilarity will ensue.
You see speedy offense I see shitty defence
(notice how Rankurusu
When was the last time you saw the latter two?
Psycho Shock is really only acceptable on Mewtwo (well Break but you get the point) and Rankurusu (who uses it to CM boost against others). Gliscor is a big issue.
And Psycho Break is good on Mewtwo as almost all the ubers have low defense and high sdef and allows it to 2 hit ko Latis and Giratina without Icebeam so it could run a fire move to deal with those steels that don't die to Aura Sphere who would be irritating (Nattorei, Forretress, Brongzong, Metagross, Scizor, etc). Psycho Shock nearly isn't so good in OU until Blissey/Chansey and Snorlax start to pop up again. Kind of a gen too late really.