Stunt Hail

[Stunt]

Stunt Hail

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Introduction

Hail is often overshadowed by the other weathers due to its impracticality. The only type that benefits from hail is Ice, yet creating a team with mostly ice types will have a significant weakness to hazards and common offensive types. In this team, I use hail primarily as a means of shutting down teams reliant on their respective weathers rather than using Pokemon which have a reliance on it. Hail also amplifies my team’s momentum and ability to force switches with the extra residual damage every turn. The team features a triple priority offensive core supported by strong defensive type coverage to reliably check the many offensive threats in the current metagame.

Abomasnow

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Abomasnow (M) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 216 Atk / 200 SAtk / 92 Spd
Lonely Nature
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Wood Hammer
- Ice Shard
- Protect

The style of hail teams is often characterized by the moveset of Abomasnow. Whereas a stall team might showcase a SubSeed variant, my Abomasnow shows a balance of offense and defense. This Abomasnow set forces many enemies out while punishing common switchins.

My reasoning behind choosing expert belt over other items is that I want to maintain Abomasnow’s survivability and type coverage while still being able to deal additional damage.

Protect may seem like a weird choice. Abomasnow has a wide pool of offensive moves, why protect? As a very vulnerable weather inducer, Abomasnow needs a way of scouting the opponent’s next move. This will disrupt the enemy’s momentum, especially against choiced users. One very specific case I want to point out is the popular Scizor U-Turn Rotom-W Volt Switch combo. Abomasnow can easily switch into Rotom-W then use Protect to scout Scizor’s next move.

The other 3 moves provide type coverage to make up for his subpar stats and give him an offensive presence.

EVs:

I primarily want to outspeed common threats that Abomasnow has to face while still having enough power to kill them. First I put enough speed to outspeed tanky variants of Politoed, Tyranitar, and Jellicent. I put just enough Special Attack to have a 100% of OHKO’ing Scizor after 1 Protect, then the rest in Attack for that powerful STAB Wood Hammer and finishing Ice Shard.

Chandelure

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Chandelure (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 16 HP / 252 SAtk / 240 Spd
Timid Nature
- Substitute
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
- Flamethrower
- Shadow Ball

Chandelure provides high offensive power with her 145 base special attack, while still covering defensive flaws within the team. Chandelure deals with offensive threats which pack in their own priority moves to penetrate my priority core (ex: Breloom, Lucario, Conkeldurr, Scizor). She is also instrumental against specific strategies like sun teams and stall. Her typing resists offensive types commonly found in sun teams like Grass, Fire, Bug, and Poison. Against stall, she is an extremely effective spin blocker because she can use sheer force and type coverage to power through common walls with the residual damage from Hail and Toxic Spikes.

In regards to the moveset, I pick Flamethrower as my fire STAB because I want to try to limit as many “luck” factors as possible. Hidden Power [Fighting] is a way of dealing with common Chandelure switchins like Heatran and Tyranitar. The key to this set is Substitute. Chandelure is a frail pokemon, but she excels in forcing switches. By using substitute during an enemy switch, I ruin the enemy’s momentum whether offensive or defensive and make up for Chandelure’s low bulk.

EVs:

Distributing EVs for Chandelure was difficult. Her bulk is mediocre, yet her defensive typing is perfect for sending in on offensive types. In the end, I decided to focus on strength and agility, with a tiny bit of health for maximum substitute efficiency and that extra tankiness. I boosted her slow speed for current OU to an acceptable level, specifically outspeeding Adamant Lucario. Speed is especially important for her because she can outspeed and 2HKO many threats from behind her substitute.

Mamoswine

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Mamoswine (M) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Thick Fat
EVs: 56 HP / 252 Atk / 200 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake

Mamoswine is a very versatile Pokemon who has a tanky, offensive, and even utilitarian presence in the game. Enemies need to be especially wary when switching into Mamoswine because he can easily 2HKO with neutral hits with his massive attack stat. He excels in punishing bad predictions with Stealth Rocks and strong type coverage with his STAB moves. Also, he carries the strongest Ice Shard in the game, which is crucial in the metagame of offensive flying and dragon types.

I chose Focus Sash not only as a last resort item for sweeps (usually starting from a critical hit) but also as a surprise factor. I find that Mamoswine doesn’t need extra strength with his 130 base attack and needs to keep his move flexibility.

EVs:

Max Attack is important for Mamoswine. To give an idea of Mamoswine’s offensive presence, Ice Shard clean OHKOs Landorus and Dragonite (after 1 tick of hail), Thundurus/Tornadus after Stealth Rock, and chunks around 70% from Hydreigon and Latios (OHKO after Volt Switch from Rotom-W and Stealth Rocks). I put a significant emphasis on speed because Mamoswine can usually 2HKO slower enemies with neutral shots (e.g: 2HKO Rotom-W with Stone Edge, 2HKO Politoed with Earthquake). Any speed past 246 is unnecessary because with the small amount of EVs I put into health, Mamoswine can tank neutral hits well and can usually tank 1 super effective hit (assuming his sash is already broken) from frail speedy Pokemon and return with a 2HKO Earthquake + Ice Shard (e.g: Alakazam).

Tentacruel

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Tentacruel (F) @ Black Sludge
Trait: Rain Dish
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Def / 4 SDef / 20 Spd
Calm Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Scald
- Toxic Spikes
- Toxic/Barrier

Tentacruel provides much needed utility for the team. As a team dependent on momentum, I needed a rapid spinner to make sure I am not hindered by hazards. Toxic Spikes furthers the power of my momentum by limiting enemy switchins due to the threat of poison and constant damage from hail. Often, Tentacruel doesn’t find himself in a favorable matchup, so I take Barrier and Scald to provide more opportunities for him to spin while not being put into a bad situation. Barrier allows for me to spin on common bad matchups like Tyranitar and Ferrothorn, where I am able to boost my defense to tank them and force a switch out with Scald. It also prevents physical sweepers like SD Scizor and BU Conkeldurr from setting up on him. [Toxic is definitely a very viable alternative to Barrier. It allows Tentacruel to more reliably win matchups against Jellicent and Volcarona (cred. Moonclawz)] Tentacruel generally has the most impact against Rain teams, where he is able to tank powerful Water STAB moves and recover back with Rain Dish.

EVs:

Most hazard setters deal physical damage, so I focus on defense EVs. Tentacruel has high base Special Defense and Speed, so I try to highlight this by putting a few extra EVs into speed to outspeed tanky Rotom-W and max Speed Scizor as well as Special Defense to better tank threats like Keldeo.

Scizor
Rotom-W

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Scizor (F) @ Choice Band
Trait: Technician
EVs: 148 HP / 252 Atk / 108 Spd
Adamant Nature
- U-turn
- Bullet Punch
- Pursuit
- Superpower

Rotom-W @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 240 HP / 136 SAtk / 132 Spd
Modest Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Pain Split
- Volt Switch
- Will-O-Wisp

Separately, Scizor and Rotom-W have very notable strengths. Both are innately tanky through their decent base stats paired with very practical defensive typings. Scizor can play multiple roles for any team from a revenge killer carrying the strongest priority move in the game, to a trapper who can force switches with his unique typing and follow up with Pursuit. Rotom-W, on the other hand, is deceptively difficult to kill with Volt Switch and Pain Split while still providing consistent damage and utility throughout the game.

However, in this RMT I want to focus on their synergy and why it meshes so well with this team in particular. They cover each other’s weaknesses of grass and fire, and the small counterplay of Pokemon who deal both grass and fire type damage such as Celebi provide ideal opportunities to send in Chandelure after a scouting move and set a substitute. Their strong damage output and tankiness combined with a lack of type weaknesses creates a frustrating momentum for enemies to deal with, especially with Stealth Rocks and Toxic Spikes limiting enemy mobility. The lack of speed in this combo is covered by strong priority moves throughout the team.

EVs:

My focus on Scizor was to max attack for the strongest Bullet Punch/U-Turns. I invested a lot into speed EVs to make sure I outspeed tanky Jellicent for Pursuit and put the rest of my EVs into health to help him utilize his typing to tank Dragon type moves.

For Rotom-W, I focused on Special Attack and tankiness. A Rotom-W with no Special Attack will not force any switches with minimal damage on Volt Switch and Hydro Pump, and a Rotom-W with no tankiness cannot be switched in defensively. The speed EVs are mainly to outspeed the 229s like Tyranitar/Politoed/Scizor, as well as 236-238s like slow Rotom-W/Tentacruel.

Conclusion

What makes me so attached to this team is how there is no outright counter to it; there is always a way to outplay the opponent with proper predictions. Though this team was created almost 2 years ago, the synergy within the team remains strong and consistently places on the top of the ladder.

Old Replay

 

[Stunt]

Having an issue with images, I'll upload them when I'm less busy.

Stunt Baton Pass and Sun Stall RMTs are also written up to be posted at a later date.

Alright, pictures added. I drew these 2 years ago back when I played really often (yes I know, blue snow T_T)

 

[Moonclawz]

Hi Stunt,

It looks like you have a pretty good hail team here. Chandelure is kind of unusual but I can see why it works.

As this is a pretty offensive team, using Toxic instead of Toxic Spikes on Tentacruel will help you by allowing Tentacruel to beat Jellicent, one of the most common spinblockers. This way you spin a lot more easily, making life easier for Abomasnow and Chandelure. In addition, Toxic allows to you cripple Latios/Latias switch-ins, as well as hitting other non-grounded Pokemon like Rotom-W and Lando-T. Tentacruel can check Keldeo/Volcarona more easily with Toxic too, since the poison damage will gradually do more than just spamming scald.

Unless you're leading with Mamoswine, Focus Sash won't be very useful do the ubiquity of Stealth Rocks in this metagame. Although you can spin them away with Tentacruel, this forces you to sent out Tentacruel first to spin just to preserve the usefulness Mamoswine's item. Instead, I feel like using Life Orb with be more helpful since it's boost Mamoswine's power, allowing Mamaswine to cleanly KO Tyranitar with Earthquake and 2KHO Landorus-T with Ice Shard. If you feel that you are using Mamoswine more of as a bulky tank, Leftovers is also a good option.

Hope this helps!

Team Testing: http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/gen5ou-60599270, http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/gen5ou-60600294

 

[Stunt]

I watched the replays and I must say I really respect your understanding of the team. I really love your suggestion of Toxic on Tentacruel, and can understand the preference of Life Orb on Mamoswine (though sash has saved me numerous times so I am attached to it :P )

For now, I'll add both suggestions as viable substitutes to my current setup.
Thanks for your insight.

edit: i'll add explanations for the alternatives later this week

 

[Cero]

Hi, I really like this team. Good job ! Let'see together some fixes that you could apply.
For first, I would run a Blizzard + Leech Seed + Wood Hammer + HP Fire set on that Abomasnow. Leech Seed is pretty useful for your team considering that you haven't god more than two Pokèmons that doesn't take damage from Hail. That means that other Pokèmon's staying power is reduced and switching them in with Abomasnow's Leech Seed is a nice way to deny hail's damage and heal them at the same time (leech seed gives +12% of health while hail decreases HP by 6% each turn if i don't remember badly). Blizzard and Wood Hammer are two excellent STAB attacks for Aboma, and Wood Hammer allows you to strike things like Chansey / Blissey. Try running this Set:

Abomasnow (M) @ Expert Belt
Trait: Snow Warning
EVs: 236 Atk / 140 SAtk / 132 Spd
Naughty Nature (+Atk, -SDef)
- Protect
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Ice Shard
- Wood Hammer

Let's see Chandelure: even with leftovers, his staying power will be really decreased if you run substitute. Chandelure isn't really that bulky to support nicely a Substitute set. You could try a surprise move: Will O Wisp. This could look more like a gimmick move, but there isn't much more you could try to run on Chandelure. Trick Room is also a good alternative.

I would run Life Orb on Mamoswine. Focus Sash sets are used only if Mamo is the lead of your team and this means that he will probably be the first to be killed, and considering that your team needs as much staying power on each pokèmon as possible, Sash Mamo isn't a nice choice. Life Orb insteand gives you more firepower but at the price of 10% of his HP so even this may not look so nice, but i sugges you to try it the same. Life Orb gives you an ensured OHKO ti things like Salamence while Latios gets OHKOed too with a little bit of residual damage from Hail.

CB Scizor is not really a great idea, especially under hail. I suggest you to try a bulky set of Zor with Roost + Leftovers + Swords Dance. This gives him MANY more opportunities to switch in and setup, while not fearing hail's damage. But if you do so, you will lose your volturn core and i suggest you also to try a Specs set of Kyurem over Rotom-W.
Specs Kyurem really surprises every opponent and it's able to shoot nicely things like Celebi, Rachi ecc while abusing Hail with Blizzard 100% accuracy + STAB.

Kyurem @ Choice Specs
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Earth Power
- Blizzard
- Draco Meteor
- Focus Blast

Scizor (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Atk / 100 SDef
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Roost
- Bullet Punch
- Bug Bite

That's all. Good Luck with your team !

 

[Stunt]

A few problems with these suggestions. By replacing Rotom-W with Kyurem, I increase my weakness to Rock type moves while losing my ability to punish Ground type predicts. I also lose my Volturn momentum as you mentioned. Also, taking away band off Scizor significantly decreases his immediate damage, which the team relies on for threats like Terrakion and Latios. Without U-Turn, Scizor is a switchin which can be easily punished.

Tl;dr- Suggestions address threats which my team already covers, while adding more problems to the team.