Need Some Help With My Hail Team

chickenfroglegs

Okay, so first of all, I know this is TECHNICALLY an OU team because of Salamence and Abomasnow but I treat it mostly as a UU team and that's what I usually restrict this team to battling. Now, for the team.

Abomasnow @ Leftovers
Snow Warning
Substitute, Leech Seed, Wood Hammer, Protect
Careful. 252 HP, 172 Defense, 84 Special Defense

Obvious Pokemon for a Hail team. It does what it's supposed to do. I made it a physical variant mainly because the few times I do play in OU, everyone runs around with standard Specially Defensive Politoed so Wood Hammer puts a pretty huge chunk out of it. I also believe that Wood Hammer does more to TTar in the Sand than a Giga Drain because of the damn Special Defense boost TTar gets from the sand. Anyways, Sub+Protect Seed stall for livability. You get the idea.



Rotom-H @ Choice Scarf
Levitate
Volt Switch, Hidden Power Rock, Trick, Overheat
Modest. 4 HP, 252 Special Attack, 252 Speed

I actually dropped StallRein for this Poke. Pretty obvious Lead Pokemon, but it there isn't much you can do. SOMEONE is going to get tricked my CScarf, and usually they get scarfed into a field move like SR or TS or just normal Spikes. That's when I Volt Switch out and head into Abomasnow for the Hail. Also, Rotom-H hits surprisingly hard, so I sometimes mix things up and make him a pretty decent revenge killer (especially against Pokemon abusing my own Hail to BlizzSpam). Hidden Power Rock is for coverage, obviously.



Froslass @ Leftovers
Snow Cloak
Spikes, Substitute, Thunder Wave, Blizzard
Timid. 248 HP, 84 Defense, 176 Speed

An essential for any and all Hail teams. Froslass is a goddess, truly. So long as Hail is up, you're pretty much safe. I get her in as quickly as possible and just spam Sub until Snow Cloak kicks in and then I TWave my enemy. This gives them a pretty slim chance to actually hit me. This allows me to set up all three layers of Spikes and, if need be, go on the offensive and BlizzSpam. Froslass's typing is also a huge help, as she acts as a spin blocker. I'm thinking about dropping Blizzard for Ice Beam just in case I don't have Hail up, but then again, I never have her out if Hail isn't up (unless it's to block a spin)



Salamence @ Leftovers
Intimidate
Rest, Sleep Talk, Roar, Dragon Tail
Impish. 252 HP, 240 Defense, 16 Speed

A weird set, I know. I made Salamence as bulky as I can so he can live longer and because he's gonna be sponging a lot of hits because of Dragon Tail's negative priority. Dragon Tail lets me make my opponent rack up residual damage and it's STAB so that's fine with me. Honestly, Salamence isn't working as great as I'd like him to be. He comes with a lot of resistances, but he's also weak to a lot of Pokemon I've faced so far. His bulk isn't that impressive either. I made him a RestTalk to help alleviate this, but it hasn't done very much. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.



Swampert @ Leftovers
Torrent
Toxic, Earthquake, Roar, Stealth Rock
Impish. 252 HP, 252 Defense

Swampert should be OU, I swear. I lack Toxic Spikes on my team, so I use his bulk to allow me to spread Toxic's around. He is also my Stealth Rocker and can also force switches with Roar. I have absolutely no complaints about this guy. (except he's completely walled by Zapdos and all of them carry HP Grass so...)



Umbreon @ Leftovers
Synchronize
Wish, Pursuit, Heal Bell, Protect
Careful. 252 HP, 252 Special Defense

Probably my favorite of this whole team. This set is so obvious, but you'd be surprised at how many people just aren't prepared to face a fully specially defensive Umbreon. It's yet to have been OHKO'd by a special move and he fills a lot of roles for my team. He can heal his partners with Wish, heal himself with Wish/Protect, and can alleviate status's with Heal Bell.

Well, that's my team. Pretty generic, I know, but any help or suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks!

----Also, sorry if this isn't visually appealing. I'm a pretty plain person. Sorry.----
 
Hi chicken, I'm gonna go straight to the point because I like things to be clear.
This team NEEDS alot of SERIOUS changes. I'm myself new to the game (I guess you are, else you didn't work so hard your strategy !) so I'm gonna try to help the most I can.

-First, there are alot of pokemons in here that are UU as you said, I believe there are alot of better pokemons that you are overlooking (or maybe you just wanted to try some cool pokemons I don't know).
So basically you got Abomasnow : that's fine I guess, it's a hail team (I'm not gonna talke about the movesets yet).


-Next is Rotom-H : Why not in a hail team he just has alot of uses such as countering Genesect and anyway, most of the Hail teams need a fire Pokemon such as Heatran. But let's keep this Rotom-H because I think he can he useful.

However Rotom-H is some kind of pivot that will probably switch alot, and this weakness to Stealth Rock is... crippling. And it's crippling for any Hail team given the poor typing of Ice.
That's why most of the Hail teams got a Spinner, and this is the one thing I'd recommend to you.
I recommend you Tentacruel as it fits most of the Hail teams. You can try some of the builds on Smogon Strategidex such as the classic Toxic Spikes one (because Toxic and Hail is just amazing), or the Substitute+Toxic set. Moreover it will help you alot with the Rain teams thanks to Tentacruel's stalling abilities under Rain with Rain Dish.



-Move on to Froslass. Snow Cloak is now banned along with Abomasnow ability to cast Hail. Get rid of this horrible build that you made anyway. To be honest, never count on luck or anything (especially on a 1/5 probability) to build a strategy. This is not the way to go because you rely on something you can't control.
I believe this Generation is not a good one to start pokemon strategy basically because hax is too present and too aggresiv, thus the games are uncontrollable, but whatever.
Let's just say Tentacruel replaces Froslass, I believe you really won't lose anything here.



-Now, Salamence. Sorry, but what the heck is this?!
You know it's a weird build, good thing at least you realised that !
What is the point of Roar here? make sure you phaze when you're sleeping? I'm not sure this is really needed ._.
So well, here I don't know what to say since it's really not a great use of Salamence. I'm just gonna say then, if you want a phazer with recovery, try Latias. A build with Roost/Roar/Dragon Pulse/Hidden Power Fire works just great in Hail. And nobody expect your Latias to Roar. You can also go for the CM set by switching Roar..



-Next is Swampert. Okay, I love him too and you need Stealth Rock. However your team lacks alot of raw power.. I believe this team is meant to be Stallish but it's really hard to play this style nowadays and I really don't recommend you this play style given your experience. You'll learn far more with a balanced team.
So here, I'd propose you to try Mamoswine with a set packing Stealth Rock. You got the Life Orb set with Ice Shard/Earthquake/Stealth Rock/Icycle Crash or Icycle Spear. Or you can't try the Focus Sash plus Endeavor set but make sure you use it as "leader" because any damage such as entry hazards will blow up your Focus Sash.


At the moment the team with the changes I told you is "ok". I'd change Abomasnow for a ChoiceScarf or an Expert Belt set but whatever.



-For Umbreon.. A wish support is great but at the moment this Umbreon is just screaming "set-up on my face please". Seriously your builds sure are "creative" but they are not good and competitive. You can't go with only one atack per pokemon or the enemy will set-up in front of someone and you'll need to Roar him. You will take a bunch of damage in the process and given all these set-up rooms you leave, you're just gonna be swept later.
Change this Umbreon for a cleaner, basically in this slot you can put alot of pokemons. In my opinion you need a pokemon that can deal with what Mamoswine can't kill. Watching the new resistance balance I think the result is satisfying. So let's just take something to clean up the annoying threats. Gyarados is in my opinion a big one. Volcarona would be a threat but you got Hidden Power Rock on Rotom-H which isn't so bad an idea in the end.. Jellicent is a wall that would be annoying since you need to come with Abomasnow, but given your EVs, Jellicent just needs to Will O Wisp you to be safe. I didn't say alot of threats but to me you need someone able to use a Electric move. You got a decent Match up against Sun Teams so let's just try to get someone helping you against Rain Teams.
You can try Zapdos, thanks to his natural bulk he can take alot of hits from the classic Rain Teams from the likes of Tornadus-T if you invest in SpDef. A set with Roost/ThunderBolt/HeatWave seems great. For the last slot you can pick alot of things, but an Hidden Power Ice seems the best.


So the team would be :

Abomasnow / Rotom-H / Tentacruel / Latias / Mamoswine / Zapdos.

Tentracruel will have alot of job to do given the weakness to Stealth Rock but let's try it, I think this team is pretty decent.
However, you should switch Abomasnow to a ChoiceScarf/ExpertBelt set in my opinion.

Yes, I know there are alot of changes, but trust me your team at the moment needs it.


You should play of Showdown server http://pokemonshowdown.com/ and once you save your team, share the Importable version here.

Just keep testing things, try the team on Showdown and come back here with your feedbacks, I believe you'll figure by yourself that you need to change this team and improve some stuff, I hope I helped.
 
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