The Wonders of Hail

[King]

The Wonders of Hail
An Overused RMT
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As part of the smogon experience, everyone really needs to post an rmt. One's own style can really be shown through a team they created! For most of you who know me really well, yes, I'm rmt'ing this team. This team got some incredible use over the past few months, but the inspiration for this team to be created was back in December when I was trying out for an SPL team. And the credit goes to PTTP! Even though we've probably never had a conversation before, the first time I played him I heard he loved creativity, and that was a thing I knew nothing about! It wasn't until the guy smashed me with a sharpedo/staraptor that I realized that bog standard isn't always the best choice. So, I decided to create a team based around my favorite weather--hail. And since I wanted it to be a hyper offensive team, I had originally had Deoxys-D, but when it got banned I changed Deo to that awesome custap skarm set that is so often used nowadays. Well, without further ado, lets get to the team!

~Team at a Glance~​

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~Individual Pokemon~
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Abomasnow (M) @ Expert Belt
Trait: Snow Warning
EVs: 220 Atk / 160 SAtk / 128 Spd
Naughty Nature (+Atk, -SDef)
- Wood Hammer
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Ice Shard

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I like to call this set the rain killer. Abomasnow is such a versatile mon, with it's access to stab priority as well as a nice ice, grass, and fire moveset. Woodhammer ko's most politoeds, and with a bit of prediction skills, you can really weaken an opposing team ;). Just about the only problem for this thing is fight gem breloom, which I have taken care of with other mons. Hp Fire is there for 4x weak steel types like Scizor, Ferrothorn, and Forretress.

Skarmory (M) @ Custap Berry
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Spikes
- Brave Bird
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock

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Probably the most boring set on my team, this guy's job is to set up hazards and kill itself. I make the defensive and sp. defensive ivs 0 so most moves can knock me out to custap berry activation-range, and my hp ivs are a low odd number just for custap berry.

Tornadus (M) @ Flying Gem
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Acrobatics
- Bulk Up
- Brick Break
- Tailwind

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Haha the 3rd member of the team, and probably the most important one. Brick break is interchangeable for superpower, but it's also there for Screens if necessary. I like to think I revolutionized this set into the viable bw2 tailwind user, but I really didn't most likely. I just used it a lot xD! Anyway, the importance of this monster for the team is HUGE: It gives my team the speed boost it needs with the ability prankster and tailwind. +1 acrobatics does a huge amount to literally everything except skarmory and rock types (few). Basically, send this mon in early, tailwind, and clean with either chandelure or salamence so that reuniclus can get a sweep late game.

Salamence (F) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Hasty Nature (+Spd, -Def)
- Outrage
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast

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The beast. Scarf mence is probably my favorite pokemon in bw history (bw1 and bw2) just because I play so well with it and comfortably. Most of my teams have some version of mence, I don't know why but I just think it's completely bad ass. Anyway, +1 outrage literally hurts everything except steels once again, but still. Just have chandelure kill some stuff with tailwind (or not if you're ballsy) and then just clean with the menace known as mence. Dragon Claw is for when you can kill a few things with a dragon move but can't quite lock yourself into outrage again, eq is for tran and fireblast is for scizor, ferrothorn, and forretress.

Chandelure (F) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Shadow Ball
- Fire Blast
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Energy Ball

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1 word. Strong. That is all.

But really, fire blast and shadow ball just does so much and Chandelure had such a high sp.atk stat that I decided to capitalize on it. The potential coverage and power allows you to use the set I made, because shadowball literally kills all dragons after sr, energy ball does a good bit to rotom-w if it doesn't kill it, and shadow ball and fireblast does a heck of a lot of damage to almost anything. Definitely the key role is spinblocking, but why not make our spinblocker a strong af mon that can't be set up on? ;]

Reuniclus (F) @ Life OrbTrait: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk
Quiet Nature (+SAtk, Spd)
- Trick Room
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball

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Truly the key to this team. This pokemon is the reason I don't have a spinner, the reason this team was so successful, just a lot of good things about this mon. First of all, I know you probably think "Jason is stupid for having tailwind and trick room on the same team!" Well, I think it's awesome and it actually is. Both sides of the speed spectrum are present on my team, where chandey and abomasnow will benefit from trick room and tailwind. Trick room reuniclus just wins games on its own though. Psychic is obvious stab for late game sweeping potential, Focus blast was a move that I chose to use because I wanted to kill tyranitar, and shadow ball is for lati@s, starmie, and some celebi.

~Ending Thoughts~​

I guess I could give some shoutouts here haha! Shoutout to Bryce Loski for being awesome, Gamester for being like a mentor to me, undisputed for being one of the coolest guys to me i know, Casedvictory for being such a shithead .trl, ShakeitUp for being my irl friend and just a really good friend to me this past year, shoutout to soviet and walsh for not wanting a shoutout, shoutout to pokeaimmd for being such a cool dude =], shout out to ctc and problems for being long time friends, hugo and thunderblunder as well, vinc, eranu, tyki, steeledges, frexa, elpoeta, raichy, psych071c, faint, tyrano, mfhoundoom, and the rest of the octilleries, shout out to my homies on WESTBEST, especially my niggas HSA and Myzozoa for coming to Octilleries for me, my TAONU brothers, blarajan for being the best tutor ever ;], and that fgt princess bri for being one of my best friends on the site. Shoutout to my frog FRIENDS and smurf, lol. Also big shoutout to mah nigga Jason (Darkrain, Jayjay, etc), mah nigga Captain for already rating the team but just bein one of the nicest people in the community, and shoutout to Ripamon for being one of my best friends the past year and a half :]. Also shoutout to Uomo Solo for being my favorite Italian (other than luck of course).

Btw, yes, I know my team is REALLY STEALTH ROCK WEAK. But I play around it. Sometimes.

 

[Oh Captain]

Hey Jason, So first off Interesting approach to hail. I like the idea of TR + Twind on the same team because it gives you
a few options for a sweep, and is innovative so kool on that.

Mainly i think Skarm is replacable for something like Forretress because it can offer you SR+ Spin, and nab some momentum with vswitch. It also seems good for Mamoswine who destroys this team. Another pokemon who really hurts this team is scizor. Without spin chandy can only do so much, and its only ever 1-2 uturns away from sweeping. So I would try HP fire over shadowball on Reuni as this can help kill scizor under TR, and also take off Bulk up on Tornadus in favor of Heatwave to also help with this. Super Power also seems better for Tornadus as it'll ease the time vs Ttar and heatran, because this team lacks any sort of switch ins for just about anything. So keeping offensive pressure is huge.

Overall unique hail team, refreshing strategy, but i believe the changes I listed above would do you some good.
Hope I helped.

Forre> Skarm
Superpower/Heatwave > current torn set
HPfire> shadowball on Reuni

 

[King]

Hey Jason, So first off Interesting approach to hail. I like the idea of TR + Twind on the same team because it gives you
a few options for a sweep, and is innovative so kool on that.

Mainly i think Skarm is replacable for something like Forretress because it can offer you SR+ Spin, and nab some momentum with vswitch. It also seems good for Mamoswine who destroys this team. Another pokemon who really hurts this team is scizor. Without spin chandy can only do so much, and its only ever 1-2 uturns away from sweeping. So I would try HP fire over shadowball on Reuni as this can help kill scizor under TR, and also take off Bulk up on Tornadus in favor of Heatwave to also help with this. Super Power also seems better for Tornadus as it'll ease the time vs Ttar and heatran, because this team lacks any sort of switch ins for just about anything. So keeping offensive pressure is huge.

Overall unique hail team, refreshing strategy, but i believe the changes I listed above would do you some good.
Hope I helped.

Forre> Skarm
Superpower/Heatwave > current torn set
HPfire> shadowball on Reuni

Hey captain! Thanks for rating my team =]

About mamoswine, yeah I have a hard time with it with this team but usually reuniclus can take care of it and it only comes out as a check for mence! Otherwise chandelure outspeeds it and kills it all teh time ;]. I love your suggestion about forretress and I will try it! Other than that though if I can spin i'll keep the movesets the way they are because focus blast is just too important on reuniclus, and heatran isn't really a problem for my team considering i have a flash fire chandelure and it does have hp ground for heatrans in general, so I can play a little prediction game with the opponent ;).

Really appreciate you givin me some pointers bro!

 

[Explorer]

Hey there, this is a neat team using the underdog of all weathers, hail. To be honest, I feel as if this is more of a HO team with Abomasnow rather than a Hail HO team, as Abomasnow itself is the only one that directly benefits from hail.

As far as Skarmory goes, I feel as if most special attacks that aren't resisted bring it down to Custap Range anyway, and it is almost impossible to do that to Skarmory with an unboosted physical attack. Therefore I suggest you run the spread 4 HP/252 Def/252 Spe with an Impish nature and the moveset you already have.

As far as abusing hail and curing your SR problem go, I realize Reuniclus doesn't do much to support the team besides nuke stuff (which is what Chandelure is doing already) and thus it is replaceable. Therefore I suggest you replace Reuniclus with

Starmie @ Life Orb/Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure/Analytic
EVs: 252 SpA/4 SpD/252 Spe
Nature: Timid
-Scald/Hydro Pump
-Recover/Thunderbolt
-Rapid Spin
-Blizzard

Starmie lets you remove rocks that hurt your team so severely with a base 115 speed, perfect for HO teams. Scald is the preferred STAB for its reliability and burn rate, but Hydro Pump can be used for additional power. Recover lets Starmie heal itself and spin multiple times if needed, while Thunderbolt can be used to combat rain teams better. Rapid Spin is the reason to use this over Kingdra or Empoleon, letting you get rid of SR at least once fairly reliably. Lastly, Blizzard lets you have another BlizzSpammer while covering Starmie's Grass weakness.

Natural Cure gives you a status absorber, but Analytic lets you abuse switches with a significant bump up on Starmie's power. Choose whichever you like, but Natural Cure is more reliable and ensures Starmie isn't crippled by sleep or paralysis. Given the offensive nature of this team, Life Orb is the preferred item, but Leftovers is also suitable.

Lastly, to help with your SR weakness, I see no reason not to switch Salamence with Garchomp. Garchomp also has the advantage of outspeeding +1 Base 100s with a Choice Scarf

Garchomp (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk/4 SpA/252 Spe
Nature: Naive
-Outrage
-Earthquake
-Fire Blast
-Dragon Claw

The moves serve the same purpose as when they are used on Salamence, but now Garchomp gets STAB on Earthquake.

 

[King]

Hey there, this is a neat team using the underdog of all weathers, hail. To be honest, I feel as if this is more of a HO team with Abomasnow rather than a Hail HO team, as Abomasnow itself is the only one that directly benefits from hail.

As far as Skarmory goes, I feel as if most special attacks that aren't resisted bring it down to Custap Range anyway, and it is almost impossible to do that to Skarmory with an unboosted physical attack. Therefore I suggest you run the spread 4 HP/252 Def/252 Spe with an Impish nature and the moveset you already have.

As far as abusing hail and curing your SR problem go, I realize Reuniclus doesn't do much to support the team besides nuke stuff (which is what Chandelure is doing already) and thus it is replaceable. Therefore I suggest you replace Reuniclus with

Starmie @ Life Orb/Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure/Analytic
EVs: 252 SpA/4 SpD/252 Spe
Nature: Timid
-Scald/Hydro Pump
-Recover/Thunderbolt
-Rapid Spin
-Blizzard

Starmie lets you remove rocks that hurt your team so severely with a base 115 speed, perfect for HO teams. Scald is the preferred STAB for its reliability and burn rate, but Hydro Pump can be used for additional power. Recover lets Starmie heal itself and spin multiple times if needed, while Thunderbolt can be used to combat rain teams better. Rapid Spin is the reason to use this over Kingdra or Empoleon, letting you get rid of SR at least once fairly reliably. Lastly, Blizzard lets you have another BlizzSpammer while covering Starmie's Grass weakness.

Natural Cure gives you a status absorber, but Analytic lets you abuse switches with a significant bump up on Starmie's power. Choose whichever you like, but Natural Cure is more reliable and ensures Starmie isn't crippled by sleep or paralysis. Given the offensive nature of this team, Life Orb is the preferred item, but Leftovers is also suitable.

Lastly, to help with your SR weakness, I see no reason not to switch Salamence with Garchomp. Garchomp also has the advantage of outspeeding +1 Base 100s with a Choice Scarf

Garchomp (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk/4 SpA/252 Spe
Nature: Naive
-Outrage
-Earthquake
-Fire Blast
-Dragon Claw

The moves serve the same purpose as when they are used on Salamence, but now Garchomp gets STAB on Earthquake.

Thank you for your suggestions, Explorer! As previously stated however, Reuniclus is a pivotal mon in the team. I don't really feel comfortable switching it out. Salamence is used for moxie specifically, otherwise I would need a boosting pokemon like dragonite. I feel like I've tried to use that skarm set before, but the whole point of no defense ivs is so that physical moves too can drain it to custap range. Thanks again for the rate!

 

[PokèManiac Livio]

Hi Jason, cool rmt, i m a fun of Reuniclus+Hail, i really love it.
Anyway the team seems have some scary weakness, your totally weak to Rock type, and without a Spinner/Bounr, you suffer one of the most common lead in bw, i mean SashTerrakion, you have not a safe enter on it, (your only "resistor" has 95% to be knoked out in 2 hits) you can only try to revengekill it, and if is scarf, i really dunno how u can stop it (maybe Tailwind+ Salamence lol)

252 Atk Terrakion Stone Edge vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Reuniclus: 207-244 (48.82 - 57.54%) -- 95.7% chance to 2HKO

I totally agree with Explorer, you should replace Salamence with Choice Scarf Garchomp, it can help u a lot against the sr weakness, u gain some point more on speed base, and dont risk some speed tie against 100base+Scarf, such as others Salamence,F Flinchrachi or similar..

Hope i Helped, see ya bro :D

 

[xDesch]

I've recently gotten into Hail at LC and UU, I tried it in OU, but in vain. But then I saw an OU rmt about it so I just had to rate it! ;)

First of all, Change Abomasnow's item to Focus Sash, and consider Seed Bomb over Wood Hammer. Since this is hail, you won't be switching too much to begin with. I've always used Sash on my Hail setter and I know it does wonders. With it, you can survive a hit, retaliate back and then attack with a STAB priority, most of the time, this guy gets at least 1 kill. Also, Cut your the speed down to 88 EV's, it's all he needs to outspeed Fully deffensive Toed, the Offensive one get's wrecked anyways. Btw, did I mention that this guy only let's Lead Terrakion eiteher hit him down to the sash, or get KO'ed at the price of SR?

I am gonna make a wild guess and say that your team struggles against HO teams, especially if they have Custap Lead Skarm. Abomasnow can't prevent him from getting to layers up, and if your own Skarm loses the Speed tie... you're in a lot of troubble. But don't worry, I've got somewhat of a solution. Swap Tornadus' Bulk Up with Taunt, and Either Acrobatics or Brick Break with U-turn (if you keep the Fighting move, use SuperPower over Brick Break). It shuts down oposing Skarmory, let's you Either set up Tailwind or use U-Turn into your own Skarm, or wathever that gives you the most momentum. And finally give him the last 4 EV's in Def or SpD, not HP. On a SR-weak poke, 299 HP > 300 HP

I aswell, agree with Chomp over Mence. I mean Rough Skin works so well in Hail, and better Speed 1 more useful STAB and SR resistance is so much needed for this team.

Thanks for sharing this team, hope I helped! :D

 

[Atamaz]

- I think this team won't benefit so much from hail, I mean, every pokemon except abomasnow that start it and reuniclus take damage from it.

- I really love reuniclus as a pokemon but I think is not that good there, more so with trick room, the other member of the team just don't care about TR and probably a sub build could be better but I think that reuniclus and chandelure are a little rendundant, I probably change them both with an Alakazham, that has great move pool, great SpA and Spd(so it don't need TR), and have magic guard like reuniclus to avoid hail damage.

Alakazam @ Life Orb
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast
- Signal Beam
- Hidden Power [Ice]

- If you don't care trying something different and a little underdog you can try Frosslass as a spiker and spinblocker (if you remove chandelure)

Froslass (F) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Cursed Body
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 HP / 4 SAtk
Timid Nature
- Spikes
- Taunt
- Destiny Bond
- Blizzard/Shadow Ball

- You REALLY NEED A SPINNER , most of your pokemon take double damage from stealth rock, as already suggested starmie is a good choice that help you even with fire and rock pokemon

 

[JayJay21]

HEY JASON :] I still think you are weak to hazards and scizor. Really you can't change much to fix BOTH of those problems but you could use tran > chandelure even if it doesn't spin block the most common spinners are tenta and starmie which you can't take 2hits anyways. I feel like reuniclus is only put there cause you don't know what else. It doesn't do much for the team since its tr and you have tail wind on torn O.O. I currently don't know what you should put over it but you should consider something like landorus t or gliscor for terrakion which would rape you.

 

[undisputed]

nice team jas0n, it's pretty strong. teams like this are hard to rate because the intricacies are not immediately apparent if you've never used it. like pretty much everyone in this thread has been saying, i didn't use this team much because i thought it was SR weak, and i like to switch as part of my playstyle. however, you're capable of playing the team really well, so i don't know if it needs too much change. some people will like it, some won't be as comfortable with it.

one idea i have might be sd lucario > salamence. i don't like scarf mence very much because i feel like it usually gets one shot at a sweep at the end of the game, but otherwise it falls short of completing its job. lucario can help revenge shit with priority moves (i was thinking bp, espeed, cc off the top of my head) and it's also a good sweeper obviously. you can also use it to help you out vs opposing scizor and terrakion that can just weaken you and sweep pretty easily.

that torn-t set is brilliant and highly underrated. i've been trying to make a team with it for a while, but my team building blows right now so it hasn't been done.

nice work buddy

 

[Shurtugal]

Hey!

Keldeo and SR quite literally stampedes everything you have (Hydro Pump has some odd chance of 2HKOing Reu I don't have a calc but the fact that Keldeo is paired with Politoed whom 2HKOs with Hydro or TTar whom lives FB and could possibly trap you, I'm a bit concerned). Mamoswine literally crushes everything one switch into mamo = something to sack. The SR weakness is really consuming and Rak looks relatively hard to switch into as well as LO Starmie.

However, I have a few subtle changes:

1.) For starters, I'd replace Expert Belt for Chople Berry on Abomasnow. This allows her to serve as sort of a pivot, as she can now take Secret Sword from Keldeo after one round of SR and OHKO back with Wood Hammer, as well as live Superpower from Mamoswine (without SR), and in addition it lives Adamant FG Mach Punch from Breloom as well after SR. I feel it's better than EB because you can at least since it offers more to the team. Hell, it can even act as a light check to Terrakion if you keep SR off the field.

calcs

255 SpAtk Keldeo Secret Sword vs 0 HP/0 Def Chople Berry Abomasnow: 55.14% - 64.8% (2 hits to KO)

252 Atk Life Orb Mamoswine Superpower vs 0 HP/0 Def Chople Berry Abomasnow: 67.29% - 79.44% (2 hits to KO)

252 Atk Fighting Gem Breloom (+Atk) Mach Punch vs 0 HP/0 Def Chople Berry Abomasnow: 42.37% - 50.47% (2-3 hits to KO)

252 Atk Terrakion Close Combat vs 0 HP/0 Def Chople Berry Abomasnow: 76.95% - 90.97% (2 hits to KO)

2.) Now the next thing I'm not a huge fan of is SR. You say you "play around it": how? The best thing you have to stop opposing Skarm from setting up SR is quite literally Taunt from your own Skarm, putting yourself at a 50 / 50 so early in the match! That's not even factoring anti-Skarm leads most HO Skarm teams have! SR Terrakion is an issue and (well, any SR setter) is an issue. I'd say that Skarm could easily be replaced for standard lead Aerodactyl. Aerodactyl can prevent rocks from being set up, as well as being able to 2HKO Starmie with Stone Edge, which is quite a plus if you ask me. You could run Fire Blast or Tailwind in the last slot on Aero -- up to you, but you have Chandy so luring out Zor and Forrey isn't really a necessity.

3.) Lastly, I'd replace Salamence for Scarf Garchomp. For starters, Garchomp and Mence both get Sleep Talk so use this over DClaw since DClaw is really bad. Second, Terrakion is such an issue and the SR weakness that replacing Mence helps cut the SR weakness so setters like Donphan that will eventually set up won't cripple you nearly as bad as before. I mean, every team member is crushing steels and Chomp itself can run both Fire Blast and EQ so I wouldn't say the loss of Moxie is really going to hinder this team.

I wish you luck! (Also, to those whom sent RMT request: I promise to get to you I swear :C).

 

[Soulfly]

Hi, nice team!
As stated somewhere above you dont really have a pokemon that benefits directly from the hail.
I was wondering if maybe glaceon could serve a roll in your team, with tail wind boost + scarf maybe he is pretty fast and his natural high special attack will make blizzards hurt alot.
The problem is, i wouldnt know what to replace :(

 

[Stone RG]

Really cool team jason, i have always liked the idea of TR reuni as a late game sweeper, and you certainly did a good job at supporting it.

The only suggestions i can actually make without switching up the hole team to the standard hail are Trick replacing Energy Ball on Chandelure, seeing as how Spex chandy tends to hurt most Water types with Shadow Ball for enough damage or even Overheat, crippling common walls, namely the pink blobs, which seem like a bitch to deal with, seems more important, as a side reccomendation, id say Timid over Modest on Chandelure, to sinergize with tailwind.

Also, i agree completely with shurt when she talked about scarfchomp's advantages over scarfmence, namely the lack of rocks weakness, as well as sort of a surprise factor. Finally, a minor nitpick, but i'd switch up aboma's spread to a more speedy one that can take on rotom w better.

Overall i loved the originally you showed in this team. Hope i helped :]