Winter Madness (My Most Successful Hail Team)

[Shammas]

I've been playing around a lot with hail recently, as I feel like weather is useful in this metagame to counter the other weathers running around, and because hail is the least frequently used, so it's generally the least prepared for. After testing a few different builds, I settled on the core of Abomasnow, Tentacruel, and the real star of this team, Froslass. I chose the rest according to symmetry and to work as a semi-stall sort of team. So here's a first look at the team-

Abomasnow@Leftovers-Snow Warning
Sassy-252 HP/172 Def/84 SpDef
Leech Seed
Substitute
Protect
Blizzard

Abomasnow serves the invaluable purpose of starting the hailstorm, and is actually serves the purpose of out-stalling certain walls such as Blissey and Ferrothorn. It also is able to set up leech seed or land a free blizzard on something after stalling out one Pokemon. I generally lead with it as long as the other team doesn't have a weather starter.

Froslass@Leftovers-Snow Cloak
Timid-252 Speed/252 Sp Atk/4 Def
22 HP IVs
Substitute
Blizzard
Thunderbolt
Disable

This is my single favorite Pokemon in Gen 5. Max speed allows it to outspeed 95% of the OU metagame, 252 Sp Atk allows it to pack a punch, and 22 HP IVs bring it to 272, which is divisible by 16, a nice leftovers divisible number. You can opt for 20 HP EVs and 31 IVs if you'd like, but Froslass never really gets hit by anything and you lose power, so there's really no reason to do that. The idea is to pop in with hail on the field, and proceed to clean up anything slower. Here's a typical example of how it works-
Vs. Lucario: Set up a sub as they crunch. Use disable. T-bolt as they decide to either stay in and die or switch to something to take the TBolt. Say they switch to Scizor and get hit. Use disable on the turn they bullet punch. They are either out of moves due to a choice set or must take another hit and use a slower move.
Keep in mind that on each turn, they are taking hail damage, and there is always the chance for them to miss due to snow cloak. This also renders moves like stone edge, hurricane, and thunder basically useless. It basically nets an automatic KO on anything slower, and the BoltBlizz combo deals serious damage to everything but Magnezone and Rotom-H I believe.

Tentacruel@Black Sludge-Liquid Ooze
Bold-252 HP/240 Def/16 Spe
Knock Off
Toxic Spikes
Rapid Spin
Surf

Always a hail team staple. It spins away hazards, it sets up toxic spikes to wear down their team quickly with the hail, and it knocks off their leftovers to speed up this process. It has wonderful synergy with ice type Pokemon, and it carries surf to threaten taunt users and dent anything weak to it. Quite often I'll get locked into a hazard war against an opposing Ferrothorn or Forretress, and of course Tentacruel always wins.

Terrakion@Choice Scarf-Justified
Adamant-252 Atk/200 Spe/28 Def/28 Sp Def
Close Combat
Stone Edge
X-Scizzor
Sacred Sword

This dude is my rock resist, my third fire resist, and my revenge killer. Since few Pokemon resist his monstrously powerful CC, he can sweep teams easily with just this one move once the resists are eliminated. It's great against any opposing scarfers, outspeeding anything slower than adamant scarfed Landorus, adamant Mence, and Dnite after one DD, and all Gyara, Scrafty, and Volcarona after one DD/QD. It's also great at taking out Lati@s with X-Scizzor.

Heatran@Leftovers-Flash Fire
Calm-252 HP/252 Sp Def/4 Def
Stealth Rock
Fire Blast
HP Ice
Roar

My defensive stealth rocker. It provides valuable resistances, hits pretty hard, frightens sun teams, and is able to lay down stealth rock with relative ease. It takes dragon type moves like a beast and can KO back with HP Ice. It's able to deal large chunks of damage and force lots of switches/roar to rack up stealth rock damage and spread toxic spikes around.

Sigilyph@Flame Orb-Magic Guard
Bold-252 HP/200 Def/56 Sp Atk
Psycho Shift
Roost
Cosmic Power
Stored Power

Everybody hates this thing. Its purpose is to wall fighting types, which it does wonderfully. It's also a great damper to physical dragons, Scizor, or anything else immune to toxic spikes that won't enjoy a burn. It really helps out with being immune to stealth rock and hail damage also. Cosmic Power allows me to set up on anything like Ferrothorn or Forretress that can't fight back. It also survives any TTar attack after one cosmic power and full health, so the burn is guaranteed.

Last Look-
So that's the team. The idea is to weaken the enemy team and set up enough hazards so that Froslass can take out the bulk of their Pokemon with its dastardly tricks. It has been very successful so far, and is a lot of fun to use. Leave any suggestions or comments that you'd like to share. Thanks in advance!

 

[Shammas]

THREATS-

Trick Room Reuniclus- I have literally no counters or checks to it. If it gets off a trick room, my only hope is to have focus blast miss multiple times on Abomasnow while it 3HKOs (I think) with Blizzard.

Weather Teams- Usually I'm able to win the weather war, but if not then I'm in trouble. Heatran is good against sun teams, and as long as I keep hail up, the rest of them don't bother me.

 

[GtM]

I'd have to say, I really like your use of Sigilyph on the team. That said, I think that running the standard moveset on it would be more effective given the rest of your team. As you keep using Cosmic Power, Hail damage racks up on opponents and prevents them from healing, which is effective in its own right. Once you have enough boosts, Stored Power has a ridiculous base power and at +6 Def / SpD it'll be a base 260 STAB, meaning even Steel types are going to take a crap ton from it. Thus, I think replacing Air Slash with Cosmic Power and Psychic with Stored Power would be a good idea. You'd only have to get two boosts with Sigilyph to have it outdamage Psychic, and that's not bad considering the many opportunities it can find to set up.

You could also use a Rock resist on your team, however, as otherwise Scarf Terrakion and Tyranitar could probably run you through. Rotom-W seems like the most expendable member of the team, so you could replace him with something like Bronzong. You can use Bronzong to set up Stealth Rock, defeat Excadrill with Gyro Ball + Earthquake, and use HP Ice to fend off Dragon types and Gliscor. This would let you run a different move on Heatran, either Taunt to help deal with other stall teams or Substitute to give him a better chance against offense teams.

 

[Team Amon Amarth]

Like GtM said, you definetly need a Rock resist. All teams, but especially Hail, needs at least one... only instead of Bronzong, I would recommend a bulky Fighter. They are the best counters to ANY Tyranitar set (the biggest threat to Hail), and can also handle Excadrill and Terrakion quite nicely. Conkeldurr, Machamp, and even Hariyama work quite nicely.

Conkeldurr seems to be thes most commonly used, and there is little need to explain why. Drain Punch is even more useful than ever since it can negate Hail damage with recovery, and Mach Punch will help replace the fact that you've lost your scarfer (if you decided to drop Rotom-W for the fighter, which is the best option).

Machamp is a tad more gimmicky, but it does have the ability to confuse via Dynamicpunch (which is actually more useful than you'd think), and it has access to elemental punches, so it can hit Politoed with Thunderpunch- Ninetales won't enjoy Dynamicpunch anyway- great for opposing weather forms, except the bizarre Hippowdon... It can run Resttalk but that's not as reliable this go around... if you do you may wish to run something with Aromatherapy or Heal Bell, which are useful to stall teams, which hate status.

Haryiama sees almost no use but it's amazing useful for Hail teams. Courtesy Thick Fat it adds another Fire resist, and Ice too (not really that special), so it essentially resists every attack Tyranitar commonly runs, save Earthquake, it also gets Knock Off- the ability to strip walls off their Leftovers in Hail, or to remove sweepers of their empowering items is insanely useful, especially since this teams lacks reliable walls. It also learns Whirlwind to Phaze and rack up entry hazards, the rare Force Palm for spreading Paralysis, or Cross Chop if you'd rather go for raw power (which Hariyama does not lack). Like Machamp, Hariyama also possesses access to the elemental punches.

 

[Delko]

Hi Shammas

First off all, strong physical attackers like Conkeldurr, Excadrill and Terrakion can be a real pain for your team. You can fix this by using Gliscor instead of Sigilyph. This will provide a more solid counter to the aformentioned threats much better then Sigilyph could. Gliscor also has good synergy with Tentacruel and you won't loose a status absorber as Gliscor does that as well. Gliscor will also provide you with a way to handle stall teams as they tend to be a bit problematic as well. A moveset of Taunt / Protect / Ice Fang / Earthquake will do fine and an EV spread of 244 HP / 176 Def / 88 Spe will suffice.

I would definitely use a specially defensive Heatran instead of the offensive one you are currently using. This will make it easier to come in on the likes of Latias/ Latios and other special attackers that can easily deal with Abomasnow. A moveset of Stealth Rock / Flamethrower / Roar / Will-o-wisp also fits a defensive set better. Will-o-wisp cripples pokes as Gyarados, Salamence, Dragonite that are common to switch into Heatran and are immune to Toxic Spikes.

Some smaller suggestions will be to use Scald on Tentacruel over Surf. The damage output won't be much of a difference and Scald has a very useful side-effect that could help you out on occasions. Also on Tentacruel you can try out Hex over Knock Off, to handle spin blocker like Jellicent better, this will also give you an easier time against stallbreakers like Mew.

On Rotom-W, I suggest Hidden Power [Ice] over the Grass variant you are currently using. Dragon type with Dragon Dance are much more of a threat to your team then the likes of Gastrodon and Quagsire, who are handled by the rest of your team and can slowly be stalled out with Toxic Spikes.

Since Tyranitar still tends to be a problem for you, you could try Focus Punch instead of Protect in Abomasnow. This will punish every Tyranitar switching trying to change the weather. This also catches Heatran and the likes of guard.

Hope these suggestions helped and good luck with the team.

 

[Shammas]

UPDATE- I added scarf Terrakion over Rotom-W, changed Heatran's set, and changed Sygiliph's set to the standard one.
Added threat list as well.

@Delko
Conkeldurr is 100% walled by Froslass unless they carry stone edge and payback. I just disable their attacking move. Excadrill is useless as long as I win the weather war, which I've been very good at lately. Terrakion can be a pain, but most are choiced and can be countered by Froslass/Terakion/Tentacruel depending on what they lock in to. Terrakion is porbably my team's biggest threat at the moment though. The reason I don't use scald on Tenta is because I rely on toxic spikes/Sygiliph burn, and switching into Sygiliph to burn a dragon or Terrakion to KO with stone edge is much safer than waiting for a burn. Protect is ridiculously useful on Abomasnow for the extra turn of hail damage, leech seed recovery, and just to scout my opponent. Also I generally have bad luck with hax, but protecting 2,3, sometimes 4 or 5 times works like a charm for me. XD
I did put in a defensive Heatran though since that's mostly what I use it for anyway, but I didn't want to use WoW if everything is already being burned by Syg/poisoned by Tspikes. So I went with SR/Fire Blast/HP Ice/Roar.

@Team Amon Amarth
I took your advice and put in Terrakion as a rock resist, without losing speed. It's 1000x better.