One Hail of a Team

[BlackGold]

Sorry for the terrible pun, but I wanted to be a bit more creative than just saying "OU Hail Team"

Anyway, I used to play a lot, but haven't been following the metagame for a while and this is my first attempt at a team in the last year and a half or something. I always liked Hail, and used it as much as I could in many metagames, so I decided to give it a try again. Without further ado, I present to you, my Hail team.

Preview:

The Team:

Tree (Abomasnow) (M) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Snow Warning
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 Def
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake
- Seed Bomb

Abomasnow, obviously here to provide the most important part of a hail team, the Hail! This is a set I came up with back when I played UU in late 2011, and I've used it for my Hail teams ever since! It can provide two purposes, and the function changes depending on what type of team I'm playing against. If my opponent is using a weatherless team, I use Abomasnow right at the start of the battle in order to set up hail as quickly as possible, and from that point he acts as a suicide lead/early game sweeper, setting up Swords Dance first turn and proceeding to take out as many enemies as possible before dying. If my opponent is using a weather team, however, I won't lead with Abomasnow, preferring to lead with something that can try and take out the opponents weather early, so that I can save Abomasnow for later to get my weather up, and from that point I use him to do as much damage as possible to my opponents team, whether I get Swords Dance up or, and as a revenge killer with Ice Shard.

Roy (Heatran) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SDef / 252 HP / 4 SAtk
Calm Nature
- Lava Plume
- Protect
- Earth Power
- Stealth Rock

Heatran performs two extremely important functions. First of all, he protects my Ice Types from Fire Attacks, and has Earth Power in order to take out the Fire Types, which are huge threats to my team, especially Ninetales, and I'll often Lead with Heatran against opposing Sun teams. He also sets up Stealth Rocks. I used to run Roar instead of Earth Power, to rack up more passive damage, along with the hail but I decided that Earth Power was more important. Protect is for scouting purposes.

Chuck (Cloyster) (M) @ White Herb
Trait: Skill Link
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Adamant Nature
- Icicle Spear
- Razor Shell
- Shell Smash
- Rock Blast

Generally the most inconsistent member of my team. He'll either get set up and sweep a whole team, or just be dead weight. I went with Adamant over Jolly for the extra power. Overall I find he's my least used member, but I don't know what would be best to replace him with.

Billy (Reuniclus) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Magic Guard
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 SAtk
Bold Nature
- Calm Mind
- Focus Blast
- Psyshock
- Recover

Reuniclus is often my MVP, and when he can get set up he's nearly unstoppable. More times than I can count I've been down by a lot and this guy brings it back, and if not allowing me to straight up win it brings the match back to a doable point. I had trouble deciding whether to go with Shadow Ball or Recover, but I decided to use Recover for added survivability, because by the time he gets set up he's often at a critical HP level. He also provides a great cover for the fighting weakness that affects the rest of my team, and with Slowbro, can protect my team from both Fire and Fighting type attacks.

The Cure (Kyurem) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Pressure
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Blizzard
- Draco Meteor
- Earth Power
- Focus Blast

I had a big internal debate on whether to use Kyurem or Kyurem B, but I went with Kyurem for two reasons. First, familiarity. Kyurem B didn't exist when I last played, so I wasn't really sure what the ideal way to use him was and I wasn't really comfortable going in blind. Second, Kyurem has higher Special Attack than Kyurem B, and since the main reason for this choice was for Blizzard and Draco Meteor I decided to go with regular Kyurem. He also has better coverage with Earth Power and Focus Blast, making him excellent at taking out other weather Pokemon.

Ow My Tail (Slowbro) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Regenerator
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 SAtk
Bold Nature
IVs: 19 Spd
- Scald
- Slack Off
- Ice Beam
- Thunder Wave
Slowbro provides a Physical Wall, and also much needed resistance to both Fire and Fighting. The 19 speed IVs is from the recommended set, in order to always be outsped by Conkeldur to avoid taking maximum Payback damage. Scald and Thunder Wave are there to cripple opposing sweepers, Scald to burn physical attackers and Thunder Wave to cripple the speed of Special Sweepers.
Thanks for taking the time to look at my team. I'm very eager to see what you think of it :)

 

[BHC Member]

One problem you might have is with Tyranitar - not only does he remove the hail, but he is a strong check against Reuniclus, who looks to be the star of the team. Stone Edge and Crunch can do a lot of damage to any member of your team should your opponent choose the right move, plus it wouldn't fear switching into Slowbro or Heatran aside from an untimely burn. Because of this, it might be worthwhile to replace perhaps Cloyster with something like Dugtrio; trapping Ninetales to maintain hail would be helpful, but trapping Tyranitar, preventing sand and removing one of Reuniclus' biggest threats would be invaluable.

The pun could have been worse, too.

 

[BlackGold]

Because of this, it might be worthwhile to replace perhaps Cloyster with something like Dugtrio; trapping Ninetales to maintain hail would be helpful, but trapping Tyranitar, preventing sand and removing one of Reuniclus' biggest threats would be invaluable.

The pun could have been worse, too.

Wow, I never thought of using Dugtrio! I had considered replacing Cloyster with Scizor, but never gave Dugtrio a second thought.

What Dugtrio set would you recommend using?

 

[BHC Member]

I've never used Dugtrio myself, but if I had to choose, I'd say Choice Band would be a good bet. If Reuniclus is down, then Blissey could become an annoyance, since Kyurem, Heatran and Slowbro cannot hope to touch it. CB Dugtrio handles Blissey the best out of its options. Something like this should suffice.

Dugtrio @ Choice Band
4HP / 252Att / 252Spe
Jolly
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Reversal
- Sucker Punch

While it isn't nice being locked in after you finish off something, between Reuniclus, Heatran and Slowbro, you should have enough bulk to take the next hit.

 

[Nysyr]

Volc with HP ground rapes this team after +1, or just with trio support.

Your team is also extremely weak to Kyu-B, behind a sub or banded as it 1/2HKOs everything you have.

To rectify this you should think of picking up a scarfer like Keldeo or Terrakion to replace Cloyster. Scarf Kyurem just isn't worth running in hail. I'd recommend changing it to a Sub roost set with Blizzard/Beam/Dpulse and Earth Power.

 

[Honus]

Cool team dude, two problems that stick out though, are fast SD Scizor that can outspeed/ohko heatran at +2, and entry hazards.

I think you can maybe afford to cut out Cloyster, as you said he's been inconsistent, for a Tentacruel. Tentacruel can really offer a lot of things to do this team that help with its weaknesses and play to its strengths. For one thing it can get rid of hazards for you, so the team doesn't crumble after SR and spikes, plus it's sort of a decent check to Scizor, burning it with Scald, etc. Finally, Tentacruel's Toxic spikes can actually help this team a lot, weakening Reuniclus counters like Tyranitar and Perish Song Celebi, as well as just other weather starters in general. I also think you need to run enough speed on Heatran to outrun max spe adamant scizor, [so 230], you can keep it as sort of a pseudo special defensive if you want, but you can also try balloon with 3 atks+sr and 252 SpA/Spe. I also think you should change Abomasnow to the following set

Abomasnow (M) @ Expert Belt
Trait: Snow Warning
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 172 SpA / 84 Spe
Lonely Nature
- Hidden Power Fire
- Ice Shard
- Wood Hammer
- Protect / Earthquake

It allows for Abomasnow to really wreak havoc on offensive and defensive teams alike, hitting common hail counters like Heatran and Scizor with prediction, while its other moves prove very hard to switch into for most Pokemon that aren't steel-typed. I really think you should try this out over the mediocre sd Abomasnow set, as it can really mess up some teams and make it a nuisance for your opponent to switch out. Good luck!

 

[Halcyon.]

Hey BlackGold, cool hail team! Hail is a really difficult team style, so kudos for trying to make it work!

In my experience, hail teams have three major issues they need to take care of to be successful. The first is that hail teams tend to have a natural weakness to fighting types. The second is a weakness to fire types (but with Heatran, you have this mostly covered). The third and most important is a weakness to rock. This last one means that a lot of common Pokémon seen on hail teams such as Kyurem, Cloyster, Abomasnow, etc., are weak to Stealth Rock. It's especially hard to win the weather war because of this, even though Abomasnow has an inherent advantage over all the other weather starters besides Ninetales. Having three of your most important Pokémon take 25% damage just for coming in is not something you want.

I'm going to work backwards here and fix each of these problems (except Fire types, which you handle pretty well). Let's start with Stealth Rock. You lack a spinner, and that can be a serious issue for hail teams for the reasons I discussed above. You need to make sure your hail setter and main sweeper are kept alive for as long as possible if you want to execute your team's strategy effectively. I'm not entirely sure of who to replace as a member of your team, though, so I think the best option would be to drop Slowbro for Defensive Starmie. Defensive Starmie might not be as good a wall as Slowbro, but it does have Rapid Spin, and that's more important to the team. The EVs I'm suggesting are also modified to OHKO Breloom with Psyshock after one turn of LO recoil since Breloom rips through your team like wet tissue paper. It can't switch in on Breloom's Bullet Seed, but it can switch in on Mach Punch or Swords Dance and KO back before it has a chance to do much else. With Stealth Rock off the field, you should be able to bring in Cloyster, Kyurem (which will be switching often) and Abomasnow much more easily.

The second of your main issues is Fighting types. Admittedly, this is only really a problem because I took out your Sloebro, but Rapid Spin was just too necessary. As it stands, Terrakion and Breloom do a number to this team. Starmie can somewhat reliably deal with Breloom, but Terrakion is another story. If it gets a chance, Scarf or Rock Polish LO Terrakion can pick off each of your Pokémon without too much trouble. To fix this, I would change your CM Reuniclus to a Trick Room set. Trick Room Reuniclus is much better than the CM set in the meta right now. Since everything is so concerned with outspeeding everything else, TR Reuniclus can use that speed against them to rip apart teams that have been weakened by your Kyurem and Cloyster. Terrakion is essentially setup bait for TR Reuniclus, since it can't OHKO, and Reuniclus can set up its Trick Room as it switches out and proceed to OHKO if it stays in. I believe your team would benefit more from this set than the one you're currently using.




Some minor changes would be to use Expert Belt mixed attacker set on Abomasnow and Life Orb over White Herb on Cloyster, but that's really just personal preference.

Hope I was able to help! Good luck with the team!

Sets

Starmie @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 216 Spd / 60 SAtk / 224 HP
Timid Nature
- Scald
- Psyshock
- Recover
- Rapid Spin

Reuniclus @ Life Orb
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 HP / 4 Def
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spd / 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball
- Trick Room

 

[chimpact]

Hey there, you have pretty nice start to a hail team.

First of all i would go ahead and change the set of your reuniclus. Against an offensive team you will rarely get an opportunity to set up. Even against stall it has little value if they have taunt, roar, or a strong physical attacker (like scizor or tyranitar). If you change it to a trick room set, you become a huge threat to those offensive teams that deal with cm reuniclus a bit better. With hail and hazard damage a lot of of 3hko's turn into 2hkos and you can always come back and set up trick room again thanks to its natural bulk . It's a pretty big threat to the current meta and you should definitely give it a shot.

I think you should replace slowbro and cloyster for other pokemon as well. cloyster obviously isn't that valuable as it shares the stealth rock weakness that plagues most hail teams and it doesnt make enough of an impact for it to be worth a spot on your team. Slowbro is set up fodder for some pokemon and has very little offensive presence. It's not that effective when its taking hail residual damage your only hazards being stealth rock.

I would replace them for a tentacruel and conkelderr respectively. Tentacruel gives you rapid spin support, a decent fighting resist, and it helps in combatting rain teams. Conkelderr works well with the trick room provided by reuniclus. It helps weaken or take out mons like skarm, jirachi, bronzong and other bulky pokemon so that kyurem and reuniclus can take them out easier.

[Placeholder for the sets.]