Snowed In - A Hail Stall Team

[Fozzy Bear]

ytfeL & Party Pete's Hail Stall​

With the Christmas spirit all around us in PS we decided, Hey why the fuck not a hail team? We decided to go with Hail Stall because Offensive Hail teams are quite frail and Hail definitely needs good supportive teammates to function properly. Now for the team!

Changes in Red

Snover @ Eviolite
Trait: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 SDef / 248 HP / 8 SAtk
Calm Nature
- Substitute
- Leech Seed
- Protect
- Blizzard

The little tree that could. Snover, our lead, our main man! We decided to go for the standard Sub/Leech Set and it does not disappoint. The bulk given from Eviolite allows him to take a few hits from neutral attacks and his typing allows him to take Earthquakes which Nidoqueen hates and any Electric or Grass type attacks that could be coming Slowking's way. The plan with Snover is to bring him in immediately to get Hail up, then pull him out and bring out one of his teammates (most notably Slowking to get Trick room up) so as not to lose him too early. The fact that he is so slow allows him to abuse Trick Room perfectly.

Cryogonal @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 200 HP / 252 SDef / 56 Spd
Calm Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Ice Beam
- Recover
- Haze

The spawn of Kyurem, Cryogonal. Our spin support and Haze support. Pretty much all there is to be said about him, although you might be looking at its EVs saying "Pff wtf these guys are stupid", NO U! :3 The 56 in Speed is to out speed Pokemon with the base Speed of 80 who are running Speed EV's with an Adamant nature, such as Kabutops, Gallade, Mesprit and Medicham. All the listed Pokemon apart from Medicham can Set-Up on on a few of our Pokemon and we don't like that ONE BIT! So we Haze away the competition. That being said Mesprit is the only one we can successfully wall with Cryogonal after we've hazed, but losing Cryogonal to a non-boosted Physical Sweeper is much better than losing him to a Boosted one.

Escavalier @ Leftovers
Trait: Overcoat
EVs: 248 HP / 200 SDef / 60 Def
Careful Nature
- Swords Dance
- X-Scissor
- Knock Off
- Toxic

Oh baby! I can't tell you how much I love this guy! My main man in most of my Trick Room teams and even outside of Trick Room he is still a beast! We went for a defensive spread of EV's leaning more towards Special Defense and a little in Defense to increase his bulk. His move set is for abusing Trick Room and trolling the opposing team with Knock Off and Toxic when they are expecting a Choice Band set. Now if we take damage from Stealth Rock our cover will be blown so it's ideal to bring him out when no hazards are up. Swords Dance allows him to get an Attack boost and rape with X-Scissor after his Counters and Checks have been eliminated.

Nidoqueen (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 SAtk
Bold Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Flamethrower
- Blizzard
- Earth Power

The Queen of RU graces us with her presence. She fits so well into this team being able to absorb Toxic Spikes, and resist Fighting types as well as Rock type attacks. This defensive EV Spread increases her bulk and the 56 in Special attack gives her just a little more Oomph! when she hits. She sets up SR and then gives great coverage against most of the tiers physical threats such as Escavalier, Aerodactyl, Entei, Durant and many more.

Slowking @ Leftovers
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 200 Def / 60 SDef
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Trick Room
- Toxic
- Slack Off
- Scald

Slowking just stole your girl Nidoking! The synergy the two of them have is TENOUTTATEN. Slowking is our mixed wall leaning more towards Defense. He is also our Trick room setter and seeing as how most of our team is slow, he is a great asset! He toxics opposing walls, Burns physical sweepers and regenerates health like a mofo! When we need to Toxic stall someone he's our main man for the job.

Miltank (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SDef / 4 Def
Careful Nature
- Heal Bell
- Milk Drink
- Toxic
- Seismic Toss

The Cleric. Not much to say about this Hot Momma, she heals the team of status', takes Fire and Ice type attacks which Snover, Cryogonal and Nidoqueen hate. The fact that her only weakness is Fighting types means she takes neutral damage from all other types.

That's it for the team. Comment and Rate please, and don't forget to Luvdisc if you liked it.

Shout out to ytfeL who helped build the team.

Miltank --> Poliwrath

Poliwrath @ Leftovers
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Relaxed Nature
- Scald
- Circle Throw
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

 

[Windsong]

Hey dude, cool team you've got here. It's always great to see more people playing RU, and with the introduction of Hail to the meta, I see that you've made the most of it! Anyhow, the team looks fairly solid, and you've got a strong defensive backbone, but you have some minor troubles against a few fairly common Pokemon, which can all be sorted out without much trouble. First and foremost, you have a lot of trouble against any boosting sweepers that can get past Cryogonal and Miltank. Specifically, Offensive Calm Mind Sigilyph, which can set up easily against a large portion of your team is capable of demolishing you fairly easily, and SubBU Gallade can do pretty much the same thing, as Slowking is too weak to break its subs.

Thankfully, there are fairly easy fixes for both these two problems. Simply running a slightly faster EVspread of 252 HP / 68 SpD / 192 Spe; Timid on Cryogonal with Blizzard over Ice Beam basically fixes your glaring Sigilyph weakness, while also helping you against opposing stall in general since you'll be beating pretty much every common spinblocker, while also outspeeding and 2HKOing Rotom switch-ins. Continuing, I strongly recommend changing Slowking's moveset around a bit. I'd drop Trick Room, which isn't really helping your team very much, for Psyshock, which is really nifty in stopping Pokemon that are bulkier on the special side from setting up against you with impunity (and it stops Gallade from setting up against you which is pretty useful!).

Finally, just a few little nitpicks. Seismic Toss on Miltank isn't doing anything that Return wouldn't do better, and given that Return is hitting harder against a lot of RU, it's easily the better option. Don't use Body Slam though, since you don't want to Paralyze something like Slowking that you need to be able to Toxic. There's really no point in running Swords Dance on Escavelier, since it'll be outsped by pretty much everything and is generally better off just throwing attacks out. I strongly suggest using Iron Head instead of Swords Dance, to hit switch-ins such as Aggron that are capable of doing a fair amount of damage to your team. Megahorn is slightly less reliable than X-Scissor, but hits a lot harder, so I also recommend that on Escavelier. Overall very solid team though, nice work!

summary of changes

• 252 HP / 68 SpD / 192 Spe; Timid EVspread on Cryogonal
• Blizzard over Ice Beam on Cryogonal
• Psyshock over Trick Room on Slowking
• Return over Seismic Toss on Miltank
• Iron Head over Swords Dance on Escavelier
• Megahorn over X-Scissor on Escavelier

 

[Acewiild]

I agree with everything windsong except that the miltank should have bodyslam because of the 30% paralyze. Probably would be better than running return on a defensive pokemon and you could abuse the speed loss of the paralyze with the power of escavalier.

 

[Fozzy Bear]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions Acewiild and Windsong! The reason i run Seismic Toss over Return or Body Slam is because it's provides consistent damage where as the moves you suggested can either be resisted or walled.

But as for the Cryogonal suggestion i think i will give it a shot since you've made a valid point. But for Slowking I am definitely keeping Trick Room. It messes with peoples heads and has helped me out so much. As well as the fact that after it's up almost all of my team can abuse it seeing as all of them are slow apart from Miltank and Cryogonal.

As for the suggestion to switch SD for Iron Head it's worth a shot, but Aggron is easily handled by Nidoqueen and Slowking, and an Escavalier with no Attack investment won't do much to anyone, where as SD alleviates that problem. But I will try out your suggestions nonetheless :) thank you for your input!

 

[ss234]

Hey there. This is a pretty solid hail team, however there are a few weaknesses.

The first major weakness I see is to Crawdaunt. It can quite easily set-up on Snover or Miltank quite easily, and simply 6-0 you from there. Every single mon on your team is 1HKO'd by a +1 Life Orb Crawdaunt, and the majority of your team is 1HKO'd without the Dragon Dance. Another big threat to your team is Kabutops. Kabutops can quite easily decimate your entire team due to your lack of a rock resist.

Therefore, I recommend running a physically defensive Poliwrath over Miltank. Miltank is doing hardly anything for your team except provide cleric support, as Ice and Fire types are easily handled by Slowking. You don't particularly need the cleric support anyway, since you have a Toxic Spikes absorber in Nidoqueen. Poliwrath is an excellent answer to a huge majority of physical attackers, including Kabutops, Escavalier(Nidoqueen can't switch in forever) and Crawdaunt. Poliwrath synergises excellently with Slowking, Escavalier and Nidoqueen, as they cover the majority of types with ease.

Now for some minor changes to the ev's and movesets. For Cryogonal, you should definitely be running Blizzard as Windsong mentioned, as it is much more powerful than Ice Beam and is an excellent answer to Sigilyph. Psyshock on Slowking is also an excellent idea, as that can stop SubBU Gallade from destroying you, and Trick Room isn't doing anything at all on Slowking really as Windsong said.

Next, on Escavalier Swords dance is a really bad choice IMO, as it doesn't get much of an opportunity to set-up, and Iron Head really helps out against things like Aggron an Piloswine. Megahorn on Escavalier is also a good choice, as it hits things like Drapion and Spiritomb a lot harder than X-Scissor, as well as leaving a much bigger dent on Cresselia.

Finally, I recommend running the standard Focus Sash + 4 attacks Snover. Snover is a really terrible mon on its own, and the only things it should be doing is getting up hail. This set allows you to literally 2HKO Escavalier, as well as seriously weaken things like Piloswine with Giga Drain.

Here are the sets and changes:

Hide

Miltank--->Poliwrath
Slowking Trick Room--->Psyshock
Escavalier Swords Dance--->Iron Head
Escavalier X-Scissor--->Megahorn
Cryogonal Ice Beam--->Blizzard
Current Snover set--->4 attacks Focus Sash Snover

Snover @ Focus Sash
Trait: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Atk / 4 Spd
Rash Nature
- Ice Shard
- Blizzard
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Poliwrath @ Leftovers
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 Atk
Relaxed Nature
- Scald
- Circle Throw
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Hope I helped and GL with the team.

 

[ytfeL]

Thanks for the suggestions all! I have been testing a variant of the above team that party pete and I created using stallrein in place of milftank with the following set-up:

Walrein @ Leftovers
Trait: Thick Fat
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SAtk / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
- Protect
- Encore
- Toxic
- Blizzard

Thick fat lets him switch into into fire attacks easily, but considering he shares the teams weakness to fighting/rock, poliwrath seems like a nice option. I will have to test him out and see how he fares. Thanks again for the feedback so far and keep the comments coming.

 

[Fozzy Bear]

Thanks for the Poliwrath suggestion Silvershadow234, I tried it out over Miltank and it's been working great! Although the lack of Heal Bell does kinda suck it's not too much of a problem.

 

[Yonko7]

Hiya Fozzy Bear! It's nice to have people try RU and Stall at that! Now I know that you wanted to a slower, more controlling team, which is what stall does for you. So for this reason, the suggestions I'm gonna make are towards that goal.

First, your team is at the moment: SubSeed Snover / Windsong's Cryogonal / Escavalier / Nidoqueen / Slowking / Poliwrath

The trouble that I find is that you time has no end-game goal; the Pokemon don't have a singular goal of walling to eternity or systematically picking the opponent apart. The team is all over the place with Trick Room, Toxic, Hail and who what else!

First, I find Escavalier to do contribute nothing and on a Stall-based team, each member should have a specific purpose, otherwise it'll fall apart. Right now Escavalier is in a weird duality between offensive and defensive, and that isn't really working. To help with your Fighting-type weakness I suggest Cresselia, and even though everyone hates her, she is an excellent Stall Pokemon. Now, Hail does nerf her a little due to Moonlight now healing 25%, but the next change will fix this. The reasoning behind Cresselia is that she is an incredibly bulky Pokemon that can take a lot. Also, with the team as a whole, Cresselia has excellent synergy with everyone. Prior to Cresselia, the team is a hard time with well-played Fire-types, notably Moltres. Life Orb Moltres can 2KO your team; your best check, Slowking, is taken out by Hurricane / Hidden Power Grass. Now a properly EVed Cresselia can avoid the 2KO and still have room to tank physical assaults.

Cresselia

Cresselia @ Leftovers
Calm | Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 208 Def / 52 SpD
- Psychic
- Toxic
- Moonlight / Calm Mind
- Hidden Power Ground / Calm Mind

The moveset is relatively obvious. Psychic is an attack so Cresselia has something and to punish Nidoqueen, which can handle Stall teams otherwise. Toxic helps you wear down the opponent, and puts the opponent on a timer so you can slowly wear them down. Moonlight is recovery, which if nerfed, but the recovery is useful. Calm Mind is another option once the opponent's Dark-type Pokemon are out. Hidden Power Ground is a good choice to hit predicted Drapion / Spiritomb on the switch.

Now there's another problem. Cresselia now lacks reliable recovery due to Hail so a Wish user is optimal. Also, Nidoqueen isn't really fitting on the team as its defenses aren't that bulky, and isn't bringing much to the table other than Stealth Rock, which a lot more Pokemon can do. Additionally, you lack a Cleric and an opposing Stall team can win if your team is poisoned; also status sucks in general so its nice to have one. To combine everything you need in one package I suggest Clefable.

Clefable

Clefable @ Leftovers
Magic Guard | Calm
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
- Wish
- Stealth Rock
- Heal Bell
- Seismic Toss

The moveset is explanatory. You get the most mileage out of Clefable as all her attacks serve a purpose. Wish keeps everyone extra healthy; Stealth Rock you need; Heal Bell for general utility; and Seismic Toss for consistent damage. To make matters better, Magic Guard prevents Hail damage! Clefable is also a clutch Moltres check.

Now some others are saying that Trick Room should be switched. I'm a bit on the fence about it. On the one hand, Trick Room is excellent because it can really screw over setup sweepers and in general, game plans, and your team is slow as a whole. On the other hand, it is a bit unreliable as the turns it is active is a bit low. Psyshock is an option, but Trick Room I definitely see being useful!

Summary

->

Escavalier -> Cresselia

->

Nidoqueen -> Clefable

Got a lot of good rates! Good luck ^^

 

[Fozzy Bear]

Heya thanks for the rate and suggestions. Moltres is a huge threat to the team, thank you for pointing that out. Clefable does sound like an ideal pokemon for the team so I will definitely try her out.

I'm not too fond of Cresselia myself but I do recognize her as a great stall pokemon. Although I feel Escavalier brings something special to the team. I will give both a shot though.

 

[ytfeL]

I also swapped out wrath for my walrein and he has been doing amazing. I actually came up against a clefable that proved to be a bit of an annoyance, but attrition played out in my favor. I also tested out the all offensive set on Escav with iron head and megahorn and it has worked rather well.

Trick room still has helped this team a lot in my battles, and it takes more convincing for me to replace it with psychic/psyshock.

 

[WasSollDas]

Hey there, I haven't played RU for a while and I'm not the best player but I might as well have a go at suggestions.

First, as you said, your team is fairly slow. The first thing that came to mind was "why no scarfer?!" before I saw slowking. However, I kinda doubt one trick room setter is enough for the entire team. Usually, trick room teams tend to have more than 1 trick room setter to make the whole team more...stable, I guess.
Also, seeing Miltank's ev spread, your team is a little vulnerable to physical moves, and especially after slowking is (somehow) gotten rid of, fast fighting pokes can really tear your entire team up. I'm thinking of a Dusknoir to tank physical hits a bit better, use will-o-wisp, have another trick room setter, and also wall fighting pokes better. However, currently I have no clue which pokemon you should substitute it with, as all 3 of ur defensive pokes are pretty important to ur team...sorry :/

Hide

Dusknoir @ leftovers
Relaxed (+Def -Speed)
Evs: 252HP, 152Atk, 104Def
Ivs: 0Speed

Will-o-Wisp / Trick Room / Shadow Punch / Pain Split or Earthquake

You might want to switch the Atk and Def if you want to go a more defensive route, and for the last move, I'm not really sure if earthquake's the best choice (you could try seismic toss or something).

Also, (I just noticed that) ur escavalier has only x-scissor as it's only attack; while it's a good late game sweeper with trick room and counters gone, it's not a reliable-enough physical attacker imo. If you DO decide to use dusknoir, escavalier is kinda useless as you already have a solid physical wall. Because of this, may I present to you: Druddigon.

Hide

Druddigon @ Life Orb (or maybe a choice band)
Brave (+Atk, -Speed) Nature
Evs: 252HP, 252Atk, 4Def
Ivs: 0Speed
Ability: Rough Skin

Outrage / Superpower or Earthquake / Sucker Punch / Dragon Claw

This seems like a standard, physicall attacking Druddigon. It's low speed makes it suitable for trick room teams, and if you prefer, you could put additional evs on defense to benefit a bit more on rough skin, and be a bit more physically bulky. You might also want leftovers because life orb + hail might rack up damage pretty quickly.
Although Druddigon gives both of your attackers an ice weakness, you have another 4 pokemon which is resistant to it (unless you use dusknoir instead of [insert pokemon here]) and I think it's worth it to have some firepower.

So...I think that's the end of my suggestions, other than that, this is a hail team which I would want to use myself :)

 

[Fozzy Bear]

Although it's true this team does lack offense, we have been able to win quite a few matches by toxic stalling the opponent. I love the Dusknoir suggestion WalSollDas, but as you said it is hard finding a poke to substitute. The problem that I have been having lately is Hitmonlee sweeping the team after Slowking is brought down. I've made some changes to the line-up which i will update after class tonight.

Thanks for the suggestions and keep the comments coming guys :D