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It’s an old hail team that i first made back in B/W, but that i recently tweaked in order to deal with the B/W2 Metagame. It took me quite a while to get to this result in B/W1, As well as a huge amount of testing. I chose to play Hail in order to counter the current metagame by ruining their respective weather. It allows me to neutralize their strategy and slowly chip away at their hp with a combination of stealth rock and Hail damage.
Black and White 2 brought us countless new offensive threats, but also a new help to this team that will be showcased later in the RMT. I managed to reach 15 on the Pokemon Online server, and I thought it did pretty well, so I thought i’d share my team with you guys. Enough talk, let’s get right down to business.
Team Building process
First of all, Here’s the original version of the team :
This team was decent, but it insanely vulnerable to Toxic Spikes, and lacked the offensive power to break through stall. In other words, I needed something to absorb Toxic Spikes, with some nice defenses along with the ability to heal, and the possibility to wreck my opponent’s team with status. This was the result :
Amoonguss solves all my team’s problems, and allows me to have a solid switch in to Thundurus-T and Keldeo, two very big problems in the current metagame. Furthermore, he allows me to improve my rain matchup, as he can switch into politoed with little worry, and proceed to spore something on my opponent’s team.
Let’s start with the only reason why i’m able to ever run hail, and the most vital pokemon of my team, Abomasnow.
I picked this classic Abomasnow in order to be both an offensive and defensive threat to my opponent, providing my team with priority ice shard to revenge kill, along with a nice stab Seed bomb, while also being to stall using protect and leech seed.
Seed bomb is preferred over Wood Hammer, because between stealth rock and recoil, Abomasnow’s life would be too shortened. Seed bomb still offers a nice stab that heavily damages problematic pokemons such as Tyranitar, Politoed Quagsire, Gastrodon and Rotom-W, most of which are very present in the current metagame. The attack ev’s allow it to pack as much of a punch as possible, as well as making Abomasnow a reliable revenge killer against Dragons, which are always a problem.
One of my favourite hail users, He brings the team with an electric immunity, as well as the ability to abuse Hax via Snow Cloak. He’s also quite an interesting pokemon, as he’s one of the very few immuned to both Hail and Sandstorm, meaning he will not take any residual damage from those.
He has a powerful stab Earthquake that can wreck many common pokemon in the OU metagame, as well as providing me with an insanely powerful Ice Shard for revenge killing purposes. Next is Icicle spear, which is my secondary ice move, it allows me to deal with sub users, as it hits multiple times, taking out many of them without them expecting it. Para-Shuffle Dragonite and sub punch Breloom are the two most common victims, and it’s always nice to get them out of the way. Superpower is very important on this set, as it allows me to dish out a lot of damage on Ferrothorn, as well as providing me with something to hit Rotom-w with.
Snow Cloak allows me to get out of clutch situation sometimes, making moves like Stone edge extremely unreliable, making Mamoswine that much more dangerous.
Gaulet (Amoonguss) (F) @ Black Sludge
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 80 Def / 16 SAtk / 148 SDef / 12 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Spore
- Stun Spore
Amoonguss is the pokemon that patched up all of this team’s weaknesses. Thanks to Spore, it always takes out one pokemon on the opponent’s team, generally for the rest of the match, as long as they don’t have a status absorber. On the turn I put something to sleep, my opponent will often bring in something to revenge kill it, such as Heatran. This is where Stun Spore comes into play, as it allows me to cripple yet another pokemon from my opponent’s team, weakening my opponent’s team considerably, and making my life a lot easier.
It also has incredible synergy with mamoswine, as most pokemon used to counter Amoonguss don’t appreciate Mamoswine at all. They form a great core that allows me to get rid of certain pokemons that can be a problem for my team. Regenerator is a god-send for Amoonguss, as it allows it to wall a problematic Pokemon, switch out and come back in Healthy once again, ready to take on the next foe. Giga drain provides him with stab, and gives me another form of recovery, and HP ice is for those pesky Flying and Dragon types that try to switch in on me.
Finally, 12 Speed ev’s to outspeed any opposing amoonguss’s, and spore them before they spore me. He’s my check to Keldeo, Thundurus and Breloom, which are all HUGE offensive threats at the moment. All around, Crucial pokemon for my team.
Starmie was a difficult choice for me, since i’m ver used to playing Tentacruel in hail, Starmie suddenly makes me that much more Tyranitar weak.However, it’s not all bad news. Starmie has the fastest rapid spin in the game, and also packs a punch offensively, which is crucial for my team, Has reliable recovery in the form of Recover, and is also a fantastic Status absorber, which Tentacruel could never do.
Starmie is superior mainly because of Recover, though. Running hail, my team is extremely weak to entry hazards in general, and Tentacruel is easily worn out with repeated switch ins, and my own hail prevents it from healing with leftovers, meaning I won’t be able to spin late game, which could end up costing me the match. Starmie also patches my team’s weakness to Fighting and Fire, as it resists both and can retaliate with a Stab Psychic or Scald, depending on the foe. He’s a secondary Keldeo counter if Amoonguss goes down.
Heatran (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 216 SDef / 40 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Flamethrower
- Stealth Rock
- Roar
- Earth Power
Any half decent Hail team needs a fire type, and heatran was my pick. His numerous resistances, Most notably to fire, ice and Dragon come in handy. Leftovers is there for obvious reasons, especially since i’m playing hail and I don’t want heatran to take damage from it.
He’s my stealth rocker, and he’s also my only phazer, as well as being my main Volcarona switch in, roaring it out, and helpling getting damage on it with Flamethrower. He’s my main answer to sun teams, as those are a horrible matchup for hail generally.
Nothing special here. But I prefert flammtrother for his power, just that.
Last but not least, Gliscor. He is very important to my team, as he is one of the very few pokemons that can restore hp under hail. He’s a secondary switch in to counter Breloom if Amoonguss is down, Which is crucial because that thing can walk all over me without those 2.
I chose this set over the others, because it allows me to poison something for free, as well as getting an extremely powerful flying STAB move to hit grass types extremely hard, such as Breloom and Celebi. Fling takes Rotom-W off guard, and makes my job at stalling it extremely easy, combining poison and hail damage. Protect is there for obvious reasons, as it allows me to not only heal up with Poison Heal, but also to rack up Hail damage on my opponent. It also helps scout my opponent’s next move, making prediction a lot easier. He’s also a second electric immunity, as well as a ground immunity, meaning it will be very easy to switch in on the new Landorus and Thundurus forms, which are often choiced.
Finally, he’s my only counter to Terrakion, which is still a huge threat to my team. Max speed is included in order to outspeed Adamant band terrakion, getting a free KO on them, as well as outspeeding and killing Lucario.
it seems as if amoongus is a sudden must in hail teams :/
Not saying much, as your team seems very stable but I'm commenting your gliscor set. I love acroscor, and I use it myself but the regular version has SD, and that's an invaluable must in this set. After 1 SD, gliscor becomes a tank, rippind holes in everything except skarmory. I don't know if without SD gliscor can hit hard enough, as whenever I don't boost it doesn't do much. To get to the point, I think you should switch fling and protect with substitute and SD- you can keep your item, or change it to flying gem, toxic orb I understand because between sub+hail scor will lose a lot of HP fast.
If you ignore everything else, at least give it 4 HP, 252 Atk, 252 Spe so that it can hit things harder.
I can understand your point of view,
But It's more important to use Fling versus Rotom, Politoed and other Counter of Gliscor, for limited the switch on hime.
After I can use hail + protect in the game.
It seems to be against a good team if I do not anticpe.
However, I have several solutions depending on the version, but I can always sleep with Amoongus or ARC, enjoy Protect + Acro of Gliscor.
I can always cash out with an attack and counter Heatran with Mamo, and enjoy 2 RK.
Alakazam Reuniculus and are difficult to counter and I'll have to sacrifice at least one Pokemon.
The advantage I have is that I can anticipate the dice display of his team.
Hey there, although Fling on Gliscor allows you to potentially poison a possible counter, dont forget that Gliscor has other counters of their own and Rotom-W is not the only one. Besides, if you don´t hit him with Fling, your strategy might blow up. My suggestion would be to use a moveset of Toxic / Protect / Substitute / Earthquake with an EV spread of 252 HP / 40 Def / 216 Speed. Toxic stall Gliscor shields himself under a Substitute, where you can spam Toxic on the foe and stall him to death. About the EV spread, you only need 216 Speed EVs to outspeed positive base 90s and the extra 40 Def EVs allows you to tank better physical hits.
As a last suggestion, I would use Psyshock over Psychic on Starmie to hit Virizion & Keldeo bypassing any CM boost, as well as an aditional way to deal with Gastrodon 1 vs 1. Hope this rate helps and good luck!
I would definitely replace Gliscor with a subCM Latias. Heatran is a shaky check to sun teams just because they usually pack dugtrio and with heatran gone, you have nothing against their onslaught of sweepers. Latias adds many key resistances to your team. With substitute you avoid any status and handle keldeo that much better. However, if you have more trouble vs sand teams, then reflect could replace substitute to handle Tyranitar/Scizor/Terrakion/Landorus better.
You can also drop down to 240 speed EVs if you want to be slightly bulkier on the Defensive side. Other Lati@s will be dealt with by your priority ice users and heatran.
> Ok, i'm agree with your point of view beacause I wanted play Latias before.
But, I have not check to Scizor if i don't don't want predict, and If I play Latias I can't count Terrakion.
And versus Sun Team, the pack Duggy+Volcarona for exemple is more play. But Duggy can't surprise me because We can see the team a the begening.
Motagua:
> For Gliscor, I really need acrobat for one shot Breloom. If i can't I loose !
So for Starmie I'm agree with YOU. Play psychoc are verry good idea, but with this attack and this repart, he can check Conkledur/Machamp ?
Very nice team and very good battler too, i've watched quite a few battles and I know that this team did work well on the ladder :)
I've actually tried it myself and I loved it, but I was destroyed by Volcarona HP ground, Reuniclus and Alakazam. I think Alakazam is ok to handle since you have two moves to revenge kill. But CM Reuniclus is quite a pain since none of your Pokemon 2HKO him (i'm pretty sure) and Volcarona is a pain in the ass if it carries HP ground, but i'm sure you are aware of that so you must have your own tricks to deal with that ! I might Consider a Latias over Gliscor like someone else suggested just before, but doesn't solve the Volcarona problem. You're trying Dnite atm so that should help more than a bit i'm sure !
Anyway, great team, I love Hail team in general but especially the ones that are nicely built !
But I don't want play LATI@S because I have again more problems versus Tyranitar, and can't counter Volcarona/Alakazam/Reuniculus.
And If I choose to swicth a Pokémon, I prefert do out Amoongus.
I don't have time for an indepth rate but definitely go with what Motagua said, considering your team fares already well against Breloom and Rotom you don't need to lower Gliscor performance against threats like Terrakion. I would also definitwly go with Lava Plume over Flamethrower on Heatran because the damage output difference is minimal and burmimg something on the switch allows you to stall faster, and again, you arent getting any more KOs with an uninvested Flamethrowee so there's no point really.
