Hail Stall
Hi everyone, I am Frostlord84. I am pretty new to competitive battling, and this team is the very first that I have constructed and used. I have used at least 50 times at this point, and I'm getting about a 50 - 60 % winning percentage so far. Part of that is certainly due to some rookie mistakes on my part, but I know that this team has room for improvement.
Team Building
I started the tgc in the gen 4 era, so I knew that I wanted to make a gen 4 team. I find several Ice types cool, so with a little bit of research, I found Smogon's dp hail stall guide, and decided to strongly base my team off of what was presented there. Obviously Abomasnow was the first choice for the auto-hail. I chose Tentacruel for the next slot, as he provides an extremely versatile role in setting up toxic spikes and as a rapid spinner. Gliscor got the third spot, as he is a great counter to many threats to a hail team, most notably Tyranitar. Some true stall pokemon were needed now, so I opted for Froslass. She has been my favorite pokemon to use, as snow cloak plus thunder wave is just mean. A hail team isn't complete with Walrein, so he got the fifth place. The last spot was a very tough decision, but Cressilia got the spot to act as a dual screen if my opponent's offense was too much to take.
Pokemon
Abomasnow @ Focus Sash
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 Atk / 172 SpA / 84 Spe
Lonely Nature
- Earthquake
- Blizzard
- Ice Shard
- Wood Hammer
This set of Abomasnow is basically the all-out attacker variant from Smogon, but I have switched out the leftovers for a focus sash. The focus sash is for letting him actually take a hit, given his numerous weaknesses. Earthquake is for anything that is a threat to my ice types, blizzard is the massive STAB hit. Ice shard I had orginally underestimated due to blizzard being present, but it is actually amazing the surprise I get pull off when Abomasnow goes first. Wood hammer si a physical, grass type stab to pair with blizzard, but at this point I have maybe used it twice or three times. This moveset combined with focus sash can often let me knock one of my opponent's pokemon, if I don't feel that I need to bring back the hail later. Otherwise, I'll just pull him back and send out my best option for the current situation.
Tentacruel @ Black Sludge
Ability: Liquid Ooze
EVs: 252 HP / 120 Def / 136 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Blizzard
- Surf
- Toxic Spikes
- Rapid Spin
Tentacruel is the most versatile of my bunch. This is basically the support variant off of Smogon, but I have added Blizzard to take advantage of the hail. Black sludge lets him break even with hail, and could make a trick user regret their move, but I haven't run into much of them. He can set up toxic spikes if I feel that he is safe from a large attack. Surf and Blizzard combined are two powerful special attacks that allow tentacruel sufficient ways to keep opposing pokemon at bay. But perhaps his most useful function is to rapid spin away entry hazards, most especially the accursed stealth rock.
Gliscor @ Leftovers
Ability: Hyper Cutter
EVs: 184 HP / 252 Atk / 72 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang
- Roost
I have always liked Gliscor, so I was more than happy to add him on the team. His role is the counter to basically anything steel or named tyranitar. The EVs are are for maximizing his potential: health for survivability, speed to ensure he goes first against his usually bulkier targets, and attack to make sure they suffer. Earthquake is the main counter move, due to its high attack power, but fire fang is for Scizor, and can also surprise Celebi that dare switch in. However, fire fang's low damage output against things not weak to it have lead me to consider alternatives, such as knock off to rid my opponents of the leftovers that can damper my hail stalling. Roost is for recovery, and stealth rock is stealth rock, but I actually have a difficult time using it on gliscor, as he is often quite busy countering.
Froslass (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Snow Cloak
EVs: 248 HP / 228 Def / 32 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder Wave
- Spikes
- Substitute
- Blizzard
So I know that a rule of competitive battling is not putting in a bunch of pokemon because they are your favorites, but Froslass is another favorite of mine. I can strongly justify her placement here, however. This Froslass is the of the hail stall variant. The EVs are such to help her survive a hit. I will usually open with either thunder wave, for slowing down or decreasing accuracy, or substitute, first. Once I can use both (if necessary), then the spikes are unloaded. Froslass is also my spin blocker, and being able to set up spikes means that spikes are the entry hazard I usually have the easiest time setting up. Blizzard is for when I'm done setting up spikes, or for otherwise getting Froslass out of trouble. I am potentially considering going for more speed over defense, because there do seem to be a few things that can out speed her and deal damage, such as Latias and Azelf.
Walrein @ Leftovers
Ability: Ice Body
EVs: 232 HP / 252 Def / 24 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Protect
- Blizzard
- Roar
The mighty Stallrein was a little difficult for me to learn how to use. However, once I did pull off my first full 32 turn stall, my opponent was down two whole pokemon basically. The EVs with substitute and protect pull off the stalling. Blizzard is surprsingly useful, as it is a lot stronger than my opponent thinks it may be sometimes. Roar is the move I don't know if I should replace or not. I chose with with the idea that Tentacruel would set up at least one layer of toxic spikes, and then I could force switches onto them and any other entry hazards I had set up. However, if toxic spikes are not up, then my opponents leftovers will cancel out the hail, ruining the stall. This has made me consider toxic for the last slot, but I am still unsure.
Cresselia (F) @ Light Clay
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 148 Def / 40 SpD / 68 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Lunar Dance
- Light Screen
- Reflect
- Psychic
The last pokemon was a a toss up, but I have settled on Cresselia to provide utility and extra type coverage. The dual screens are useful to help me against high powered offense, or to help out Gliscor counter or Froslass set up. Psychic is a nice move for keeping pokemon like Infernape at bay. Lunar dance lets me bring one of my pokemon back to prime condition. I used this to clear status, heal Abomasnow after a focus sash (provided no spikes/stealth rock), and heal just about anyone on my team. It can also restore the pp on Blizzard should that be an issue.
Problem Pokemon
My team is most certainly not without flaws. There are a number of pokemon that cause me some trouble. The main ones are:
Starmie
When making a team that was 50 % ice. I certainly did not expect Starmie to be at the top of my problems with. In theory, Abomasnow should be able to take it out, but Starmie is way too fast, and Abomasnow is much harder to bring in if stealth rock is up. Starmie's thunderbolt destroys tentacruel, making it hard to remove the stealth rock to bring in abomasnow to wipe out starmie. Starmie's recover also makes it very hard to stall out.
Tyranitar
He stops the hail, which in itself is a big problem. He can then use his rock, ground and dark moves to level my team. Gliscor does a fairly good job at his role of killing him (still isn't perfect), but the sandstorm is a big problem if Tyranitar lurks around just to keep his weather up. I'd say I usually split 50-50 on wheather or not I take down the beast.
Any Steel Type
This includes Jirachi, Scizor, Heatran, Bronzong and Steelix most notably. To be fair, these are not as much as a pain as I thought they would be. Jirachi is fast, but I can sometimes scare it off with surf from tentacruel or fire fang from gliscor. Bronzong can be either stalled out or fire fanged. The rest fall to earthquake. I usually am ok if I can address them early game, but a late game surprise from say, Scizor can be a problem.
And with that I have presented my full rundown of my hail team. I don't think it is too awful, but I am definitely open to suggestions and criticisms. This team is really fun to play with, and I can tell that my opponents often hate it so that makes it doubly fun. Thanks for reading!
Hi everyone, I am Frostlord84. I am pretty new to competitive battling, and this team is the very first that I have constructed and used. I have used at least 50 times at this point, and I'm getting about a 50 - 60 % winning percentage so far. Part of that is certainly due to some rookie mistakes on my part, but I know that this team has room for improvement.
Team Building
I started the tgc in the gen 4 era, so I knew that I wanted to make a gen 4 team. I find several Ice types cool, so with a little bit of research, I found Smogon's dp hail stall guide, and decided to strongly base my team off of what was presented there. Obviously Abomasnow was the first choice for the auto-hail. I chose Tentacruel for the next slot, as he provides an extremely versatile role in setting up toxic spikes and as a rapid spinner. Gliscor got the third spot, as he is a great counter to many threats to a hail team, most notably Tyranitar. Some true stall pokemon were needed now, so I opted for Froslass. She has been my favorite pokemon to use, as snow cloak plus thunder wave is just mean. A hail team isn't complete with Walrein, so he got the fifth place. The last spot was a very tough decision, but Cressilia got the spot to act as a dual screen if my opponent's offense was too much to take.
Pokemon
Abomasnow @ Focus Sash
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 Atk / 172 SpA / 84 Spe
Lonely Nature
- Earthquake
- Blizzard
- Ice Shard
- Wood Hammer
This set of Abomasnow is basically the all-out attacker variant from Smogon, but I have switched out the leftovers for a focus sash. The focus sash is for letting him actually take a hit, given his numerous weaknesses. Earthquake is for anything that is a threat to my ice types, blizzard is the massive STAB hit. Ice shard I had orginally underestimated due to blizzard being present, but it is actually amazing the surprise I get pull off when Abomasnow goes first. Wood hammer si a physical, grass type stab to pair with blizzard, but at this point I have maybe used it twice or three times. This moveset combined with focus sash can often let me knock one of my opponent's pokemon, if I don't feel that I need to bring back the hail later. Otherwise, I'll just pull him back and send out my best option for the current situation.
Tentacruel @ Black Sludge
Ability: Liquid Ooze
EVs: 252 HP / 120 Def / 136 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Blizzard
- Surf
- Toxic Spikes
- Rapid Spin
Tentacruel is the most versatile of my bunch. This is basically the support variant off of Smogon, but I have added Blizzard to take advantage of the hail. Black sludge lets him break even with hail, and could make a trick user regret their move, but I haven't run into much of them. He can set up toxic spikes if I feel that he is safe from a large attack. Surf and Blizzard combined are two powerful special attacks that allow tentacruel sufficient ways to keep opposing pokemon at bay. But perhaps his most useful function is to rapid spin away entry hazards, most especially the accursed stealth rock.
Gliscor @ Leftovers
Ability: Hyper Cutter
EVs: 184 HP / 252 Atk / 72 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang
- Roost
I have always liked Gliscor, so I was more than happy to add him on the team. His role is the counter to basically anything steel or named tyranitar. The EVs are are for maximizing his potential: health for survivability, speed to ensure he goes first against his usually bulkier targets, and attack to make sure they suffer. Earthquake is the main counter move, due to its high attack power, but fire fang is for Scizor, and can also surprise Celebi that dare switch in. However, fire fang's low damage output against things not weak to it have lead me to consider alternatives, such as knock off to rid my opponents of the leftovers that can damper my hail stalling. Roost is for recovery, and stealth rock is stealth rock, but I actually have a difficult time using it on gliscor, as he is often quite busy countering.
Froslass (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Snow Cloak
EVs: 248 HP / 228 Def / 32 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder Wave
- Spikes
- Substitute
- Blizzard
So I know that a rule of competitive battling is not putting in a bunch of pokemon because they are your favorites, but Froslass is another favorite of mine. I can strongly justify her placement here, however. This Froslass is the of the hail stall variant. The EVs are such to help her survive a hit. I will usually open with either thunder wave, for slowing down or decreasing accuracy, or substitute, first. Once I can use both (if necessary), then the spikes are unloaded. Froslass is also my spin blocker, and being able to set up spikes means that spikes are the entry hazard I usually have the easiest time setting up. Blizzard is for when I'm done setting up spikes, or for otherwise getting Froslass out of trouble. I am potentially considering going for more speed over defense, because there do seem to be a few things that can out speed her and deal damage, such as Latias and Azelf.
Walrein @ Leftovers
Ability: Ice Body
EVs: 232 HP / 252 Def / 24 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Protect
- Blizzard
- Roar
The mighty Stallrein was a little difficult for me to learn how to use. However, once I did pull off my first full 32 turn stall, my opponent was down two whole pokemon basically. The EVs with substitute and protect pull off the stalling. Blizzard is surprsingly useful, as it is a lot stronger than my opponent thinks it may be sometimes. Roar is the move I don't know if I should replace or not. I chose with with the idea that Tentacruel would set up at least one layer of toxic spikes, and then I could force switches onto them and any other entry hazards I had set up. However, if toxic spikes are not up, then my opponents leftovers will cancel out the hail, ruining the stall. This has made me consider toxic for the last slot, but I am still unsure.
Cresselia (F) @ Light Clay
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 148 Def / 40 SpD / 68 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Lunar Dance
- Light Screen
- Reflect
- Psychic
The last pokemon was a a toss up, but I have settled on Cresselia to provide utility and extra type coverage. The dual screens are useful to help me against high powered offense, or to help out Gliscor counter or Froslass set up. Psychic is a nice move for keeping pokemon like Infernape at bay. Lunar dance lets me bring one of my pokemon back to prime condition. I used this to clear status, heal Abomasnow after a focus sash (provided no spikes/stealth rock), and heal just about anyone on my team. It can also restore the pp on Blizzard should that be an issue.
Problem Pokemon
My team is most certainly not without flaws. There are a number of pokemon that cause me some trouble. The main ones are:
Starmie
When making a team that was 50 % ice. I certainly did not expect Starmie to be at the top of my problems with. In theory, Abomasnow should be able to take it out, but Starmie is way too fast, and Abomasnow is much harder to bring in if stealth rock is up. Starmie's thunderbolt destroys tentacruel, making it hard to remove the stealth rock to bring in abomasnow to wipe out starmie. Starmie's recover also makes it very hard to stall out.
Tyranitar
He stops the hail, which in itself is a big problem. He can then use his rock, ground and dark moves to level my team. Gliscor does a fairly good job at his role of killing him (still isn't perfect), but the sandstorm is a big problem if Tyranitar lurks around just to keep his weather up. I'd say I usually split 50-50 on wheather or not I take down the beast.
Any Steel Type
This includes Jirachi, Scizor, Heatran, Bronzong and Steelix most notably. To be fair, these are not as much as a pain as I thought they would be. Jirachi is fast, but I can sometimes scare it off with surf from tentacruel or fire fang from gliscor. Bronzong can be either stalled out or fire fanged. The rest fall to earthquake. I usually am ok if I can address them early game, but a late game surprise from say, Scizor can be a problem.
And with that I have presented my full rundown of my hail team. I don't think it is too awful, but I am definitely open to suggestions and criticisms. This team is really fun to play with, and I can tell that my opponents often hate it so that makes it doubly fun. Thanks for reading!
