My first RMT (Hail Stall)

[hobo bob]

As it says in the title this is my very first team so it might be noobish =p
Sorry if there are any errors here but I'm typing this very late and am half asleep. Basically the idea of this team is to weaken the opponent with hail and entry hazards, then strike hard with my Gallade and Clefable

At a glance

ALL UPDATES ARE IN BOLD!

Abomasnow (252 hp 84 SpA 96 SpD 76 Attack)
Leftovers
Sassy

Blizzard
Leech Seed
Protect
Wood Hammer

Starts the hail for my team and also acts as a tyranitar/hippo counter. I made him slow so that way hail goes up instead of sandstorm. Protect is to gather intel and scout for choice scarfers. Leech seed is to help gain health lost through woodhammer and the 100% accurate blizzard is strong against that annoying Hippo.

Walrein (220 HP / 228 Def / 60 Spe)
Leftovers
Bold

Substitute
Protect
Roar
Surf

Standard set for a Stallrein which allows it to stall for about 32 turns. Roar is to haze while damaging my opponent through entry hazards. Surf is for Infernape and other fire types that may try to sweep my team. Nuf said

EDIT: I have switched out Froslass for Rotom-W for reasons explained by bloo
ThunderBolt, Hydro Pump, Rest, Sleep Talk , Bold Nature, 252 HP / 120 Def / 136 SpD

Froslass (252 speed 252 Hp 4 SpA)
Timid
Brightpowder (Might get Focus Sash)

Spikes
Confuse Ray
Destiny Bond
Blizzard

Froslass is here mainly to set up spikes and then piss the oponent off. With her snow cloak brightpowder combo she is already hard to hit, and once the enemy is confused she can set up spikes easily. Blizzard is there for the strong STAB and destiny bond is to take down anything that might KO her.

Nidoqueen (252 Hp 252 Def 4 Atk)
Impish
Black Sludge

Toxic Spikes
Stealth Rock
Earthquake
Stone Edge

Nidoqueen is givin high defense EV's so she can survive longer to set up toxic spikes and stealth rock. She can take hits and hit back with a decent attack, and absorb opponents' toxic spikes, which is an advantage over the standard Tentacruel. The earthquake/ stone edge combo is nice and hits nearly everything for neutral damage.

Clefable w/ Magic Guard (252 Hp 252 Atk 4 Def)
Adamant
Toxic Orb

Wish
Protect
Facade
Encore (Might replace this with another move)

Clefable is an excellent tank, taking no damage from entry hazards and is unaffected by hail, which is a nice advantage over Blissey. Toxic Orb is given so Clefable can't get put to sleep or get any other annoying status change, while powering up Facade, which does very nice damage with base 140 and STAB. Clefable can do a suprising amount of damage even with a low base attack, which helps me sweep later on in the game. Encore is good for forcing switches but it limits me to only one attack which is sort of a letdown. I was thinking about replacing it with stone edge, belly drum, or thunderpunch so she can counter Gyrados better, but I'm not sure...Wish combined with Protect is very nice for healing and since Clefable doesn't take damage from Stealth Rock she can switch out again and again, healing my entire team, without taking too much damage.


EDIT: I am no longer using Gallade! I have switched him to bloo's Machamp. His moveset and EV's are
Substitute, DynamicPunch, Stone Edge, Payback, 216 HP/252 Atk/40 Spd, Leftovers, Adamant

Gallade (252 attack 252 speed 4 Hp)
Adamant
Choice Band/ Scarf?

Close Combat
Shadow Sneak
Psycho Cut
Night Slash

Once my opponent's team has been weakend by hail, entry hazards, clefable and stallrein, I bring out this bad boy =D Close combat is and psycho cut are both nice STAB attacks which hit the opponent hard. Night slash is for any ghosts or psychic types while Shadow Sneak is a good priority move and great for killing Gengar counters such as Gengar. I might replace Choice Band with Choice Scarf because Gallade's base Speed is kinda slow and he won't need the power boost once my opponent has been softened up.

If you have read this far you are awesome and you get a cookie =D Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as this is my first team and I suck at this :p. I am concerned about Gyrados and or Scizor coming in and annihilating my entire team so any ways to counter them woud be great. Thanks for your help, all you raters are awesome!

 

[tab]

Quick nitpick is all a have time for right now:
Lucario and Infernape are both better than Gallade, especially for that role. Seeing as your stategy is to weaken the team and sweep, I'd recommending running either of them with a Swords Dance set so you have the ability to switch between attacks.

 

[Bloo]

Change Walrein's EV spread to 220 HP / 228 Def / 60 Spe with a Bold Nature. With that EV spread, Walrein will be faster than Skarmory, meaning you can prevent Skarmory from Whirlwinding your Substitute away by Roaring him out first. You also have enough bulk to guarantee survival from Salamence's +1 LO Outrage. Why is Bold better than Calm on Walrein? Calm boosts Special Defense. Walrein is not really meant to be taking Special Attacks such as ThunderBolt. Instead, Walrein should be making the best out of its Defense by using a Defense boosting nature such as Bold.

As you mentioned, your team is pretty vulnerable to Scizor who often carries a set of Bullet Punch/Superpower/U-turn/Pursuit. With Bullet Punch, it kills your Abomasnow, Gallade, and Froslass easily while Superpower easily dispatches of Clefable. Walrein will also fall to SuperPower as well. It can also keep using U-turn to slowly wear down your team and then finish your entire team late-game with the aforementioned Bullet Punch. You also mentioned that your worried about Gyarados which is a bit of a worry to me as well. Gyarados can set up a Dragon Dance on a locked Close Combat from Gallade and start dealing lots of damage to your team with Stone Edge and Waterfall. The best you can do is Roar it away with Walrein who cannot do anything back with Surf. So I will suggest a Pokemon to help with both Gyarados and Scizor. One Pokemon that can help with Scizor in addition to Gyarados is a Rotom-w. Maybe over Froslass? The reason to use it over Froslass is because it protects you against so much more threats than Froslass does, while providing very similiar resistances and immunities. The only thing Rotom can not do is use Spikes. Overall, Rotom will help your team out more. If you do choose to use Rotom, I suggest using a set of ThunderBolt, Hydro Pump, Rest, Sleep Talk , Bold Nature, 252 HP / 120 Def / 136 SpD. ThunderBolt is for STAB while hitting the Gyarados you fear in addition to various other Bulky Water-types. Hydro Pump allows you to dent Tyranitar, a Pokemon that loves switching into Rotom. Rest is there to recover your HP and Sleep Talk is so you can attack while your sleeping. This Rotom acts as a status absorber while keeping a multitude of threats in check for you. This also gives you a nice status absorber which your team lacks right now. You can use Hydro Pump over Will-O-Wisp as well since Toxic Spikes will be up. Since Tyranitar will be inflicted with Poision, you can hit it with a super effective Hydro Pump to wear it down!

Now onto Gallade! I feel that Gallade's spot can be filled by a Pokemon that can 1) Sweep more reliably 2) Have more bulk 3 provide you with a better Tyranitar counter. What Pokemon do I have in mind? That Pokemon is Machamp! Machamp is an excellent Pokemon to have on a Hail team. It makes a great counter to Tyranitar while being able to shuffle your opponents team with DynamicPunch/ What do I mean by that? DynamicPunch has a 100% to inflict confusion on your opponent. With Confusion + Hail + Residual damage, Machamp can effectively take down a team with DynamicPunch once you have laid down all your entry hazards. If you decide to use the Rotom-w I have suggested above, Machamp has no need to be a RestTalker. Instead, you can use a set of Substitute, DynamicPunch, Stone Edge, Payback, 216 HP/252 Atk/40 Spd, Leftovers, Adamant. That Machamp set makes for an effective late game sweeper. With DynamicPunch, it will annoy your opponent to no end with the 100% confusion rate plus all of the other residual damage from Hail, Stealth Rock, and Toxic Spikes. Stone Edge allows Machamp to hit Flying types such as Gyarados, Salamence, and Zapdos. Payback allows Machamp to take care of the Ghost types that otherwise have an easy time with this set such as the Rotom formes. Substitute protects Machamp from status and allows Machamp to safely attack with the three moves it has without having to fear taking damage. Credit goes to DawnBringer and august for this set! So with the suggestions I have made, you should be able to handle Scizor and Gyarados more effectively now.

EDIT

First off how come he should be in Heat forme if he is not going to use overheat?

I edited my posts and suggested using Rotom-w for one reason. Since Toxic Spikes will be on the field, you will not be able to beat Tyranitar since you canot hit it with Will-O-Wisp due to Posion from Toxic Spikes. Instead, you can predict the switch-in and hit it for decent damage with Hydro Pump to wear it down with the Poison damage and Hydro Pump.

My second question is could I give Machamp a SleepTalk set so that Rotom can become a trick scarfer? Machamp could still counter Ghost and Psychic types while Rotom would gain a fire move to possilbly 1HKO scizor and use thunderbolt to hit heavy damage to Gyrados

I would suggest not making Rotom a Choice Scarfer for a couple of reasons. Firstly, a Choice Scarf Rotom is usually used to 1) Revenge kill the likes of Gyarados, Lucario, Scizor, and then using Trick to transfer the Choice Scarf onto a Pokemon that does not enjoy the item such as Blissey, Snorlax, or Hippowdon. So, Rotom revenge kills Lucario right? You do not need a revenge killer for Lucario. You have Nidoqueen, an excellent counter to Lucario that do not run Ice Punch. If said Lucario does run Ice Punch, then RestTalk Rotom can cripple it with Will-O-Wisp to soften the blow from Ice Punch and then proceed to kill with ThunderBolt. If Lucario has Crunch, Nidoqueen beats it with a STAB Earthquake which OHKOes. Choice Scarf Rotom also kills Scizor right? That does not really matter since the Rotom I suggested above can easily take on said Scizor with ThunderBolt alone. Gyarados also falls to the RestTalk Rotom I suggested above since it cannot OHKO with Waterfall while Rotom OHKOes back with Thunderbolt and can proceed to Rest the damage of. Another reason I suggest not making Rotom a Choice Scarfer is because you want Rotom to be alive for as long as possible. Rotom is the only Pokemon on your team that can prevent Rapid Spinners such as Starmie and Forrtress from spinning away your precious Stealth Rock and Toxic Spikes. With Choice Scarf, Rotom is significantly less durable and is very vulnerable too Purusit from the likes of Tyranitar, who can sponge all of your attacks with ease. At least the Rotom I suggested above can cripple it with Will-O-Wisp, Rest off the damage and then switch out since Pursuit will do little damage thanks to the inflicted Burn.

could I possibly make Rotom a trick scarfer so that he can take down walls and Gydrados/ Scizor?

Walls are no problem for your team from what I can see. The Machamp I suggested above has the potential to rip apart walls such as Hippowdon with DynamicPunch and the combination of Confusion + Toxic Spikes + Hail damage which will wear down most walls pretty easily. You also have Clefable, another Pokemon capable of dealing with walls. With Encore, Clefable stops walls such as Blissey, Hippowdon, etc in their tracks as they are locked into one move, meaning that they will have to switch, meaning that you will rack up more Toxic Spikes + Stealth Rock damage.

Ahhh should I use Mamo or Machamp...I'm torn =/

I will explain the merits of both. Fistly, this is what Mamoswine adds to your team. It adds an additional Fighting weakness, making your team have a total of 4 Fighting weakness, which is not a good thing at all. Mamoswine is immune to hail damage and makes a great sweeper as well. However, it is less durable than Machamp. Machamp gives you a very reliable Tyranitar counter while being able to sweep extremely well while providing bulk at the same time. If you go with Mamoswine, your team is going to have a bit of trouble breaking through the Rotom formes who can cuase a lot of trouble since it beats Mamoswine if you use it, Clefable who cannot touch said Rotom, Abomasnow who falls to Overheat, Walrein who falls to ThunderBolt, and Nidoqueen who eventually falls to Shadow Ball + Will-O-Wisp. It would also increase your Scizor weakness. For all of those above mentioned reasons, I suggest using Machamp. However, test both Mamoswine and Machamp and see which works out better for you.

 

[d2m]

Drop the Atk EVs and Facade on Clefable and give it Seismic Toss. Weaker in some situations stronger in most. Encore is Clefable's strongest suit. Gyarados, Scalemence, etc that try to set up on Clefable get locked into Dragon Dance while you're free to do whatever you want.

Use these EVs:
252 HP / 152 Def / 100 SpD / 4 Spe

 

[hobo bob]

Thank you Bloo for your response, it was really helpful! I think I will make the switch to Machamp and possibly Rotom-H. I really like Rotom and have considered him but I don't like the fact that I can't set up spikes and that I can't use rotom on Wi-fi. I may just use Rotom on my main team and Froslass for any Wi-fi battles that I do. I will definetly change my Walrein to a Bold nature so he can take hits from Salamance and other physical sweepers.

As clefable will be my other wall should I take off some attack or Hp ev's and give them to SpD so she can wall better or should I just leave her alone? With Machamp I can counter ghosts that my Clefable hates so I may just leave Clefable with the moveset she has now. The Machamp/ Rotom-H seems like a nice combo but first off how come he should be in Heat forme if he is not going to use overheat? My second question is could I give Machamp a SleepTalk set so that Rotom can become a trick scarfer? The stats of this would be

Machamp (same EVs)
Dynamic Punch
Payback
Sleep- Talk

Rotom-H w/choice scarf (252 SpA 252 HP 4 Speed)
Overheat
Shadow Ball
Thunderbolt
Trick

Machamp could still counter Ghost and Psychic types while Rotom would gain a fire move to possilbly 1HKO scizor and use thunderbolt to hit heavy damage to Gyrados.

So to sum it all up all of my concerns, will the loss of Spikes significantly weaken my team and could I possibly make Rotom a trick scarfer so that he can take down walls and Gydrados/ Scizor?

Thanks again for your help Bloo! If you can come down to California I will give you a cookie!

Edit: I didn't even see your post d2m but thanks for the advice aswell. If I give Clefable seismic toss should I change her nature to something that resits SpD better?

 

[d2m]

As clefable should I take off some attack or Hp ev's and give them to SpD so she can wall better or should I just leave her alone? With Machamp I can counter ghosts that my Clefable hates so I may just leave Clefable with the moveset she has now.

If a ghost switches in on Clefable (with the EVs I posted), use Encore. They most likely outspeed and even if they damage Clefable (with Focus Blast or something) then you'll know exactly which attack they're stuck using and be able to swap out to something that counters it. If it's a set like SubGar, you've just trapped it in sub and rendered it useless.

You might consider CB Mamoswine over Gallade/Machamp. It can learn Superpower for Fighting coverage, Ice Shard for Priority, EQ, Stone Edge. Plus it benefits from Snow Cloak (haxy, yes, but it has won games for me on Sandstorm teams with Gliscor/Cacturne.

 

[hobo bob]

Ahhh should I use Mamo or Machamp...I'm torn =/

 

[monster]

I think Machamp is probably the best route, since if you had Mamoswine you would have a severe weakness to fighting.

 

[hobo bob]

I think Machamp is probably the best route, since if you had Mamoswine you would have a severe weakness to fighting.

Agreed I'm going to go with Machamp and rotom although don't the different formes give different stat bonuses or is that my imagination?

 

[d2m]

Agreed I'm going to go with Machamp and rotom although don't the different formes give different stat bonuses or is that my imagination?

No, different moves: Oven gets Overheat, Washer gets Hydro Pump, and Mower gets Leaf Storm.

 

[hobo bob]

No, different moves: Oven gets Overheat, Washer gets Hydro Pump, and Mower gets Leaf Storm.

I know that the formes get different moves but I was saying that on a rest/talk version it doesn't really matter what forme Rotom is because he won't be using it. But with the updated moveset he will now be able to gain that extra move so I decided to use Washer Forme.