Introduction
Hello smogeners! In this weathered filled metagame of Gen 5, we’ll be focusing on the little brother that was never really used and was left in the naughty corner, a Hail Team. As you will see in a minute, this hail team actually consist of no Gen 5 pokemon mainly due to the lack of attention given to the Hail Team. However, after some testing, I realize this was in fact an advantage for our little brother as my opponents are less prepare for what they will be fighting against plus the fact that some of these pokes got some new toys to play with. Now on to some business.
At a Glance
In Depth
Tentacruel (F) @ Black Sludge
Trait: Liquid Ooze
Ev: 252HP/120 Def/ 136 SDef
Nature: Calm (+SDef/-Atk)
-Toxic Spikes
-Rapid Spin
-Hex
-Scald
In any weather team, it is essential that your opponent does not have any weather changing moves or abilities against you. Therefore, to prevent losing Abomasnow or revealing him too early in the game, I will lead off with this specially defensive support Tentacruel who comes in to lay the Toxic Spikes and Rapid Spin away entry hazards later. Toxic Spikes is excellent along with hail as it allows the team to easily out live your enemy. With Tentacruels awesome special defense, ev investment in defense and/or Reflect, Tentacruel is very reliable at its job at coming in early to lay Toxic Spikes or coming back later to rapid spin.With its ability Liquid Ooze, although not the best ability, but it does great at switching into Conkeldurr Drain Punches that deals tons to my Ice types. In the offensive department, although their is nothing amazing about it, this Tentacruel does pack Scald for the burn chance and Hex to abuse to toxic spikes.
Abomasnow (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Snow Warning
Ev: 252HP/4 SDef/252 SAtk
Nature: Quiet (+Satk/-Spd)
-Leech Seed
-Blizzard
-Giga Drain
-Hidden Power Fire
Nothing is more important than hail in a hail team right? So second up is the only user of Snow Warning, Abomasnow. Abomasnow aims to switch in early and sometimes before the opponents lead have left. This Abomasnow is packed with 252 in HP and SAtk allowing it to K.O. more fragile pokemons. Nature wise, it has quiet which increase SDef to take some hits and decrease speed. The speed decrease is essential and 0 speed iv due to the fact you want to be slower than all of the weather abilities such as Tyranitar Sand Stream which you will so you can get the hail on. After Snow Warning, depending on your opponent, you may either want to stay in to do damage, leech seed or leave. However, you must be careful not to die without confirming that your opponent has no possibly way to remove your hail which is hard to tell early in the game. Now to the moveset. The moveset is very standard, Blizzard for the 100% accuracy and stab( Which in fact can bring Aerodactyl down to his focus sash and kill him with hail), STAB Giga Drain, Leech Seed and HP Fire. HP Fire is excellent due to the increasing use of Ferrothorn. With HP Fire and Hail Damage, Ferrothorn can only move twice, meaning it is unlikely Ferrothorn will be able to set up any thing serious. Abomasnow aims to just set up hail and reinforce it if it ever subsides, but with his power moves like Blizzard, Abomasnow can strike at any moments if chance is given.
Cresselia (F) @ Light Clay
Trait: Levitate
Evs: 252HP/148 Def/40 SDef/68 Spd
Nature: Bold (+Def/-Atk)
-Light Screen
-Reflect
-Lunar Dance
-Psychic
Just from a glance you can see that I am indeed running a Dual Screen Cresselia. Theres nothing much special about this Cresselia except for the fact that it is on a Hail Team. Let me explain why. As a stall team, most of the most efficient walls only reside in a great defense or a great special defense but never both. Therefore, running Dual Screens in a hail/stall team makes it very easy to make my walls much more defensively powerful than ever. This can be seen by the monster Regice becomes after a Reflect. Nothing much can OHKO it even the Flare Blitz of an Arcanine. Lastly, with a powerful STAB Psychic, although isn't really the doomsday weapon, acts as a deterrent for fighting types to come in and fragile ones like Mienshao will be OHKO from a Psychic.The synergy the 'Lunar Pokemon' creates really builds this team up.
Regice @ Leftovers
Trait: Ice Body
Ev: 252HP/248 Def/4 SAtk/4 SDef
Nature: Bold (+Def/-Atk)
-Ice Beam
-Toxic
-Substitute
-Protect
Regice, the star of this team. The special defense deity was banish to NU but makes its come back with its DW Ability; Ice Body (hmmm, Gamefreak seems to just realize Regice is literally an Ice Body). Combined with leftovers, Regice can use the hail like a recover move, increasing its stalling potentials. Along with Cresselias screens, Regice can even take super effective moves smoothly. The moveset is a very stallish one, having STAB Ice Beam as the only form of attack. The evs gives Regice a fantastic 327 in Def and 437 in SDef and combined with Sub,Protect and Toxic, Regice can easily stall a team to death. The only downside to Regice is its typing making it sometimes thin ice. However, the solution is to take out any potential risk of the opponent by using our next pokemon.
Gliscor (F) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
Ev: 244HP/192 Def/72 Spd
Nature: Impish (+ Def/-SAtk)
-Fling
-Earthquake
-Acrobatics
-Taunt
Gliscor with the wonderful Ground/Flying typing allows it to come in a take not very effective fighting moves, neutral rock moves and immunity to electric. The evs gives him enough defense and hp to stay alive yet enough speed to deal damage to slower pokemons. The moveset is the typical Fling set and aims to hurt with STAB Earthquake and STAB Acrobatics. Taunt is there to shut off any thing setting up or block them from healing. Gliscors great synergy really just connects with Tentacruel, Abomasnow and Regice. All of them are capable of taking Ice hits for Gliscor whilst Gliscor can take Electric hits for Tentacruel and Fire/Fighting/Rock/Steel for the other two.
Raikou @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Pressure
Ev: 4HP/252 SAtk/252 Spd
Nature: Rash (+Spd/-SDef)
-Volt Switch
-Thunderbolt
-Weatherball
-Hidden Power Fire
As the last pokemon, we are bringing back the BL legendary, Raikou. Claimed to be outshone by many electric types in Gen 4 ( Possibly Gen 5 due to the new additions and Volt Absorb didn't do much), Raikou finds a comfortable spot on my team. Scarfed and max speed, it takes to role of being my revenge killer and taking on the leftovers my other pokes have failed to stall to death. With Weatherball in the hail, Raikou runs Boltbeam with STAB Thunderbolt and 100 bp Ice Weatherball. Hidden Power Fire is there for coverage and Volt Switch is the new toy that Raikou gets, allowing it to wield a Choice Scarf even better.
Improvements Checklist
Now as most hail team suffer from, my team also do suffer from a huge fighting weakness and a huge rock weakness mostly in the form of powerful stab moves or stealth rock. Please help me eliminate or reduce these problems. A threat list will be up after a while mainly due to the fact that I am lazy.
Hello smogeners! In this weathered filled metagame of Gen 5, we’ll be focusing on the little brother that was never really used and was left in the naughty corner, a Hail Team. As you will see in a minute, this hail team actually consist of no Gen 5 pokemon mainly due to the lack of attention given to the Hail Team. However, after some testing, I realize this was in fact an advantage for our little brother as my opponents are less prepare for what they will be fighting against plus the fact that some of these pokes got some new toys to play with. Now on to some business.
At a Glance
In Depth
Tentacruel (F) @ Black Sludge
Trait: Liquid Ooze
Ev: 252HP/120 Def/ 136 SDef
Nature: Calm (+SDef/-Atk)
-Toxic Spikes
-Rapid Spin
-Hex
-Scald
In any weather team, it is essential that your opponent does not have any weather changing moves or abilities against you. Therefore, to prevent losing Abomasnow or revealing him too early in the game, I will lead off with this specially defensive support Tentacruel who comes in to lay the Toxic Spikes and Rapid Spin away entry hazards later. Toxic Spikes is excellent along with hail as it allows the team to easily out live your enemy. With Tentacruels awesome special defense, ev investment in defense and/or Reflect, Tentacruel is very reliable at its job at coming in early to lay Toxic Spikes or coming back later to rapid spin.With its ability Liquid Ooze, although not the best ability, but it does great at switching into Conkeldurr Drain Punches that deals tons to my Ice types. In the offensive department, although their is nothing amazing about it, this Tentacruel does pack Scald for the burn chance and Hex to abuse to toxic spikes.
Abomasnow (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Snow Warning
Ev: 252HP/4 SDef/252 SAtk
Nature: Quiet (+Satk/-Spd)
-Leech Seed
-Blizzard
-Giga Drain
-Hidden Power Fire
Nothing is more important than hail in a hail team right? So second up is the only user of Snow Warning, Abomasnow. Abomasnow aims to switch in early and sometimes before the opponents lead have left. This Abomasnow is packed with 252 in HP and SAtk allowing it to K.O. more fragile pokemons. Nature wise, it has quiet which increase SDef to take some hits and decrease speed. The speed decrease is essential and 0 speed iv due to the fact you want to be slower than all of the weather abilities such as Tyranitar Sand Stream which you will so you can get the hail on. After Snow Warning, depending on your opponent, you may either want to stay in to do damage, leech seed or leave. However, you must be careful not to die without confirming that your opponent has no possibly way to remove your hail which is hard to tell early in the game. Now to the moveset. The moveset is very standard, Blizzard for the 100% accuracy and stab( Which in fact can bring Aerodactyl down to his focus sash and kill him with hail), STAB Giga Drain, Leech Seed and HP Fire. HP Fire is excellent due to the increasing use of Ferrothorn. With HP Fire and Hail Damage, Ferrothorn can only move twice, meaning it is unlikely Ferrothorn will be able to set up any thing serious. Abomasnow aims to just set up hail and reinforce it if it ever subsides, but with his power moves like Blizzard, Abomasnow can strike at any moments if chance is given.
Cresselia (F) @ Light Clay
Trait: Levitate
Evs: 252HP/148 Def/40 SDef/68 Spd
Nature: Bold (+Def/-Atk)
-Light Screen
-Reflect
-Lunar Dance
-Psychic
Just from a glance you can see that I am indeed running a Dual Screen Cresselia. Theres nothing much special about this Cresselia except for the fact that it is on a Hail Team. Let me explain why. As a stall team, most of the most efficient walls only reside in a great defense or a great special defense but never both. Therefore, running Dual Screens in a hail/stall team makes it very easy to make my walls much more defensively powerful than ever. This can be seen by the monster Regice becomes after a Reflect. Nothing much can OHKO it even the Flare Blitz of an Arcanine. Lastly, with a powerful STAB Psychic, although isn't really the doomsday weapon, acts as a deterrent for fighting types to come in and fragile ones like Mienshao will be OHKO from a Psychic.The synergy the 'Lunar Pokemon' creates really builds this team up.
Regice @ Leftovers
Trait: Ice Body
Ev: 252HP/248 Def/4 SAtk/4 SDef
Nature: Bold (+Def/-Atk)
-Ice Beam
-Toxic
-Substitute
-Protect
Regice, the star of this team. The special defense deity was banish to NU but makes its come back with its DW Ability; Ice Body (hmmm, Gamefreak seems to just realize Regice is literally an Ice Body). Combined with leftovers, Regice can use the hail like a recover move, increasing its stalling potentials. Along with Cresselias screens, Regice can even take super effective moves smoothly. The moveset is a very stallish one, having STAB Ice Beam as the only form of attack. The evs gives Regice a fantastic 327 in Def and 437 in SDef and combined with Sub,Protect and Toxic, Regice can easily stall a team to death. The only downside to Regice is its typing making it sometimes thin ice. However, the solution is to take out any potential risk of the opponent by using our next pokemon.
Gliscor (F) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
Ev: 244HP/192 Def/72 Spd
Nature: Impish (+ Def/-SAtk)
-Fling
-Earthquake
-Acrobatics
-Taunt
Gliscor with the wonderful Ground/Flying typing allows it to come in a take not very effective fighting moves, neutral rock moves and immunity to electric. The evs gives him enough defense and hp to stay alive yet enough speed to deal damage to slower pokemons. The moveset is the typical Fling set and aims to hurt with STAB Earthquake and STAB Acrobatics. Taunt is there to shut off any thing setting up or block them from healing. Gliscors great synergy really just connects with Tentacruel, Abomasnow and Regice. All of them are capable of taking Ice hits for Gliscor whilst Gliscor can take Electric hits for Tentacruel and Fire/Fighting/Rock/Steel for the other two.
Raikou @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Pressure
Ev: 4HP/252 SAtk/252 Spd
Nature: Rash (+Spd/-SDef)
-Volt Switch
-Thunderbolt
-Weatherball
-Hidden Power Fire
As the last pokemon, we are bringing back the BL legendary, Raikou. Claimed to be outshone by many electric types in Gen 4 ( Possibly Gen 5 due to the new additions and Volt Absorb didn't do much), Raikou finds a comfortable spot on my team. Scarfed and max speed, it takes to role of being my revenge killer and taking on the leftovers my other pokes have failed to stall to death. With Weatherball in the hail, Raikou runs Boltbeam with STAB Thunderbolt and 100 bp Ice Weatherball. Hidden Power Fire is there for coverage and Volt Switch is the new toy that Raikou gets, allowing it to wield a Choice Scarf even better.
Improvements Checklist
Now as most hail team suffer from, my team also do suffer from a huge fighting weakness and a huge rock weakness mostly in the form of powerful stab moves or stealth rock. Please help me eliminate or reduce these problems. A threat list will be up after a while mainly due to the fact that I am lazy.
