It's Cold in Here

[teajello]

This is a remake of my first attempt at RMT. A hail team basically. I really need some help on this. So please rate and comment. Thank you!

Changes in red

My Hail Team!

Introduction

Well, it's still pretty rough but I've spent about a week on this team. (Probably because it's AP Week and I have a ton of homework and exams and stuff.) I finished and I'm fairly happy. There is alot of work that needs to be done on this team of course. It's basically UU. It's not strictly for competitive but of course, I hope to be able to compete competitively. UU and BL Pokemon are Abundant. One OU, if I'm not mistaken.

What does it do?

This team is a sweeping, stalling, and roaring machine. Now, you might be thinking... Sweeping and stalling are completely different. Well that's true of course but in my team, there are lots of opportunities for both. It's fairly flexible in that respect. (Of course, it's nowhere near perfect. It might not even be "good") The hail is a good touch for the stalling part of this team. I have entry hazards and phazers all about. I originall had toxic spikes but I took it out. Of course, I still want to have it in for stalling purposes but taking it out put a little more oomph in my team's sweeping abilities.

Please rate and help. I'd love advice but please don't flame. I'm pretty new to this team building deal so there are lots of holes in it. There are probably one or two great threats to me that are to many hail teams that are insufficient in covering those threats.

And ladies and gentlemen, without further stalling for time...



My Hail Team




The Lead
Rapid Spin, Toxic Spikes

Tentacruel
@ Leftovers
Liquid Ooze
Calm
EV 252Hp/6Def/252Spe
- Rapid Spin
- Toxic Spikes
- Surf
- Sludge Bomb

Claydol's type was an advantage but I switched it off to Tentacruel after its failure in testing. Tentacruel works quite well as a toxic spiker as it's rather fast and can (surprisingly) outspeeds a few of the common leads out there. It goes very well with my Stallrein and it almost always sets down the two layers it needs to set down.

The EVs are kind of non-standard but they've been doing great for me so I'll be keeping them for further testing. The surf and sludge bomb don't do very well but occasionally nets me a free kill or two if I'm lucky.



Hail Man
Staller

Abomasnow
@ Leftovers
Snow Warning
Timid
EV 252HP/6SpA/252Spe
- Leech Seed
- Substitute / Protect
- Ingrain / Blizzard / Grass Knot / Protect
- Ingrain / Blizzard / Grass Knot /Protect

Changed the Abomasnow set to a stall set. This was because the sweeping set didn't work well for me due to Abomasnow's 4x weakness to fire. I don't know about the last few moves. Ingrain might prove disadvantageous if the opponent switches out a fire type. Any ideas?

This set is working fine so far...



The Annoying Spike Guy
Annoyer, Spikes, Spin Blocker

Frosslass
@ Leftovers
Snow Cloak
Timid
EV 212Hp/96SpA/200Spe
- Spikes
- Substitute
- Confuse Ray
- Blizzard

I like Snow Cloak... Don't you like Snow Cloak? Frosslass' main goal is to set down 3 layers of Spikes. This is done by annoying the crap out of the enemy Pokemon. Evs are pretty HP oriented. I thought about building around its defenses but I decided not to. SpA is for Blizzard? One attack... I don't know if I really need it. It's SpA is pretty good to begin with anyways. Speed for setting down Spikes and so it can TWave, Confuse, or Spike better. It's basically to annoy the enemy with its Snow Cloak, Brightpowder, (Leftovers anyone?) and TWave (and maybe Confuse Ray) combination. Then substitute until the enemy miss or fail in attacking (which won't take too long) before you start spiking.

It's EVs are kind of weird in my opinion. Speed is important, Hp is important. (I'm VERY unconfident in its survivability despite the evasion stuff) SpA is only for one move though. Blizzard. A move I don't even know if I will have. Of course, I'll change the EV around if I get rid of Blizzard. But I might keep it in just because it's Frosslass' only attack move. (Not that an attack move is absolutely necessary, but hey, Hail + Blizzard + Decent SpA = Pretty Good Attack)

Also, my spin blocker. Pretty good spin blocker but not much retaliation against the spinning Pokemon...

And for items...

Brightpowder? Leftovers? Suggestions?



The Fire Eater, The Special Sweeper
Special Sweeper, Phazer

Ninetales
@ Leftovers / Life Orb
Flash Fire
Timid
EV4Hp/252SpA/252Spe
- Flamethrower
- Nasty Plot / Energy Ball / Dark Pulse
- Nasty Plot / Energy Ball / Dark Pulse
- Roar

Fragile... Thinking of changing the moveset around w/o Roar? Maybe Bulky Arcanine as replacement.

Eat up the fire attacks. Kill a few things along the way. It can Roar away the fire Pokemon after eating it's attack as Ninetales doesn't have many suitable attacks against fire types. The Pokemon that comes in will take damage from Stealth Rock, Spikes, and if we're lucky, from Ninetales herself. Ninetales has a fairly nice movepool with a fairly SpA special attack. That's where nasty plot comes into play.

Though I'm leaning toward using nasty plot and one of those two attack moves, I still don't know whether type coverage or power is more important. Flamethrower is the given STAB and roar is for phazing and entry hazard abuse. I'm probably being stubborn by not using Heatran just because I don't really like it but I think Ninetales plays its role fairly well anyways. If anyone thinks otherwise, by all means, HELP!

EVs are standard Special Sweeper

Life Orb or Leftovers anyone? I didn't consider Choice Specs because I wanted flexibility in being able to roar away anyone I don't want to fight.


Testing a bunch of Pokemon for this role (including Heatran). Don't want to list them all...



The Stallrein
Staller

Walrein
@ Leftovers
Ice Body
Bold
EV 252HP/178Def/88SpD
- Protect
- Substitute
- Roar
- Surf

Oh, I love you, Stallrein. This is a rather non-standard Stallrein with... what? Roar! Surf has fair type coverage and Roar for phazing and promoting entry hazard damage. Protect and Substitute for Stalling. Defensive EVs all around. Leftovers for even better stalling action! I'm probably going with Substitute because of it's stalling abilities but Rest also has its perks since I might be going around roaring things, it would help to some degree.

Not much to say, stall, roar (entry hazard damage), stall, roar. Roar also helps get rid of things it might be scared of (considering Stallrein doesn't get OHKO'd).


The Late Game Sweeper
Physical Sweeper

Weavile
@ Life Orb
Pressure
Jolly
EV 40Hp/252Atk/216Spe
- Night Slash
- Ice Shard
- Brick Break
- Poison Jab / Shadow Claw / X-Scissor

Very non-standard for Weavile. I don't want to risk Weavile's fragility with Swords Dance and I want the additional type coverage no matter how small it happens to be. Comments? The last one is sort of a surprise thing. This set has worked pretty well for me as a revenge killer so I'll keep it until I reach more problems.

My Late Game Sweep! Weavile... Overall, pretty good OU Physical Sweeper in my opinion. (One of my favorite Pokemon too. ^-^ So maybe I'm biased) Pretty standard late game Weavile. Swords dance helps in its own way. Night Slash and Ice Shard are good for Stab. I don't know if I should go with Life Orb actually. Weavile's kinda a wimp. If the opponent pops out a Scizor or something, I'm pretty dead. I want to promote its survivability with Shell Bell since Weavile will be blowing stuff up basically at the end with its high Atk and SDance. But I don't know how much that would help in actuality...

Standard Weavile EV. Of course, that doesn't mean it's bad in any way. Standard Weavile Moveset. Of course that doesn't mean its bad in any way. LOL Actually, when I was going for late game sweeper, I considered Mismagius and Gengar for better type coverage. If you guys have any opinion on that, I'm very open to opinions and suggestions.





Conclusion

Well that's it for my team. Thanks for reading! Please rate and help me with comments and suggestions. I'm too lazy to post a threat list and I'm not really good at identifying counters and such so I won't.

Thanks for reading. Rate and comment!​

 

[SharKing]

How about a Focus Sash on Weavile? That'll allow it to set up a Swords Dance.

 

[Wiilio]

I'd say that since you have Abomasnow and Weavile up there which forces you to use this team in Standard play, you should switch some members to match the environment. Biggest suggestion: Switch Ninetales to Heatran. Heatran is excellent in OU and on Hail teams. This is mainly because of its ability, Flash Fire, boosting the power of its Fire attack of choice. With its already very good Special Attack, whatever attack you go with (Fire Blast, Flamethrower, or Overheat) will be VERY powerful. I wish Froslass had Nasty Plot... then you could slap BrightPowder on it, throw up a Substitute, and play it like Garchomp used to be played. However, it doesn't, and if you want something to abuse Snow Cloak in Standard, you're better off with Mamoswine. Froslass can be used, but its power is a bit low. The rest seems fine; Claydol has very good Defenses, two of the four resistances you need, and it has the best characteristics of a Spinner (Resists Stealth Rock, immune to both kinds of Spikes, and can set up Stealth Rock). However, if you find that Claydol doesn't work for you after testing, you might consider using Tentacruel. It can Rapid Spin (and do it faster) and sets up Toxic Spikes, which I have found works EXCELLENTLY alongside Stallrein. Seriously: DO NOT TAKE WALREIN OFF OF THIS TEAM! Walrein is EXCELLENT on Hail teams. Protect/Substitute/Toxic/Blizzard is what I used, but with Toxic Spikes up you could use Protect/Substitute/Blizzard-Surf/Surf-Roar. Personally I would go with Blizzard over Surf if you have to choose. It has more power against things that resist it than Surf does, and it has a chance of freezing. Roar will help you get some status going so you can stall even more effectively.

All-in-all, good team that could use some tweaks.

 

[teajello]

Thank you for all your comments, they've been very helpful...

Can anyone give me opinions on this?

I'm thinking of switching out my ninetales with an umbreon. It can tank and phaze better.

Then, having umbreon as a dark type, I want to switch out Weavile for a Bellyzard as late game sweep.

Yes, no, just plain stupid?

This is sort of a risk I know and kind of non standard for a hail team which often means it won't function as well.

Any suggestions?

 

[Wiilio]

I'd say no Umbreon; it adds to the common weaknesses of Ice-types without taking one away. Walrein can fill about the same roll. Weavile needs to stay.

 

[teajello]

Alright thanks for all your comments.

Claydol didn't work well in testing... :/ It was way too slow and I couldn't rapid spin anything because of that. I switched it to Tentacruel who had better survivability definitely when I started testing. However, in the long run, I found Stealth Rock to be more useful than Toxic Spikes. They were good, but my opponents kept switching out on my whenever it got damaging without mean look or anything to trap them.

Stallrein works perfectly as you said it would. It can easily poison the entire team and take out 2 or more Pokemon to my surprise.

I decided not to use Umbreon because of the type problem you mentioned. And Weavile's been doing wonders as my revenge killer (On two occasions as my last Pokemon, taking out the enemy's remaining 4 Pokemon in one amazing sweep, winning me the match. They were damaged, given, but that's still pretty amazing in my opinion. There was alot of luck involved as well...)

My Frosslass is working out fine with it's Confuse Ray so I'll keep it for until I have time to test it further for flexibility. It's not very durable but has taken on the role of my spin blocker on more than one occasion so I like it.

I need to switch out my Ninetales definitely. It dies in every match almost immediately. Too fragile. However, I don't want to go with the standard Heatran on a hail team. I'm testing a few other fire Pokemon that might be bulky enough to take some damage. If they fail in testing, I'll just go with Heatran.

 

[Wiilio]

Well, if you don't want the standard Heatran, and you said you like Stealth Rock, try this:

Heatran
Nature: Timid
EVs: 6 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Item: Shuca Berry
~ Stealth Rock
~ Fire Blast
~ Earth Power
~ Explosion

And there's your lead. From what I've heard it's a typical rule of thumb not to lead with your weather-inducer. Most people ignore that, and most people know that most people ignore that, so you can have the element of surprise if your opponent knows you're running a weather team and bring out Heatran to start the battle off. Also, many people expect Scarftran, so you can get a free Stealth Rock in while the opponent switches.

For Weavile, don't use any of those last moves imo. Poison Jab has poor coverage as it is, Shadow Claw and Night Slash have close to the same coverage, and while X-Scissor hits Psychics AND Darks at the same time, you have STAB Night Slash for Psychics and Brick Break for Darks. If you don't want to use Pursuit to kill off those annoying Azelfs, Gengars, and Alakazams, you can go for Aerial Ace to take out Heracross.

For Froslass, since you're using Substitute, maybe use a Petaya Berry and Shadow Ball over Confuse Ray? Just a thought to shake things up a bit.

Since you're in Hail, Tentacruel can use Blizzard if you want it to.

 

[teajello]

Alright thanks, I'm gonna change my Weavile's last move to Aerial Ace. Thanks for your help.

And where should my Tentacruel go if Heatran leads? Should I alter its EV or moveset?

 

[Wiilio]

Well Tentacruel doesn't usually lead. It'll still be fine.