Hello, I'm usually just a lurker, this being my first post and all, but recently I peaked the UU-ladder with this team and I wanted to share it with you.
I have played competetive pokémon for a couple of years now, and being quite tired of the weather wars of OU, I looked to UU to test my skills. I realized Abomasnow had just become UU, and never having tried hail before, I thought it would be nice to have a weather starter that could permanently set up for the entire match without much competition. So I decided to make a hail team for UU, my favorite tier.
I have played competetive pokémon for a couple of years now, and being quite tired of the weather wars of OU, I looked to UU to test my skills. I realized Abomasnow had just become UU, and never having tried hail before, I thought it would be nice to have a weather starter that could permanently set up for the entire match without much competition. So I decided to make a hail team for UU, my favorite tier.
At a glance
Screenshot of the ladder
In-depth team building process
The only pokémon with Snow Warning except for Snover, so of course it goes here. Thinking what can abuse hail, I thought of abilities and attacks that benefit from it.
STAB BoltBeam seemed like a good idéa, especially with the power of Blizzard, as there are so few pokémon in UU that resist both types, so I added the freezer. I also added the dreaded Stallrein from 4th gen, having heard tales of it's terror, but never used it myself.
Next I realized I would need some Toxic Spikes support for Stallrein to work properly. I read about Qwilfish in a UU-RMT a long time ago, and it seemed a nice addition to my team considering every UU-team has at least 1 fire- or fighting-type, usually one of each or more. Qwilfish recieved Intimidate from the Dream World so it was the perfect candidate resisting both fire and fighting.
I would need some rocks as well, to chip away at the health of flying-types and effectively reducing the amount of times fire-types could switch in. Rapid Spin support is also nice on a team with lots of ice-types so i went with Claydol, being the only reliable pokémon in UU that could set up rocks, spin and tank hits. I also added Froslass for more hazards in Spikes, a fighting-type immunity, as well as spinblocking.
This team performed fairly well, but it could not quite counter certain pokémon such as Chandelure and Zapdos. I tried a couple of different pokémon over Claydol, first Druddigon, then defensive Kabutops (it could tank fire attacks pretty well), but Zapdos still raped me. Thinking of a Zapdos-counter I came up with Lanturn. It would also give me Heal Bell support, which is useful in all cases, but I needed it mostly to heal Walrein should it get an accidental burn from Scald or get paralyzed by Thunder Wave. I knew I needed a ground-type to help tank Stone Edge and other moves so I went with Nidoqueen over Froslass, as it has rocks and is a very good counter to fighting-types in general.
This was the version of the team I used the most while laddering, but I figured Nidoqueen wasn't doing very much except for taking hits and giving me another ground-weakness, and I needed something that could tank Psychic-attacks. Spinning would also be welcome so I went back to Claydol which turned out great.
A closer look
Puletre (Abomasnow) (F) @: Leftovers
Ability: Snow Warning
Adamant Nature (+Atk-Spatk)
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Attack / 4 Speed
Shiny: Yes
-Ice Shard
-Wood Hammer
-Leech Seed
-Protect
This thing starts up the blizzard and can actually dent and take a good deal of hits. Ice Shard 2HKOes all Roserade, and the defensive variant can't even OHKO with Sludge Bomb. Wood Hammer hits like, well, a hammer, smashing everything that doesn't resist it. Leech Seed is always awesome, and gives Abomasnow a lot more staying power. With Protect this thing is quite the staller. I usually lead with this, protecting the first turn to scout for choice users (Chandelure, Rotom-H, Darmanitan, Victini) before I go to a resist. This team is very much about residual damage and every Protect steals away 6% more health from things without Leftovers, and effectively neutralize Leftover recovery for pokémon who rely on it to heal, as well as giving it more HP from it's own Leftovers and often Leech Seed.
Blinkefisk (Lanturn) (M) @: Leftovers
Ability: Volt Absorb
Calm Nature (+Spdef-Atk)
EVs: 52 HP / 204 Defense / 252 Spdef
IVs: 0 Attack
-Scald
-Volt Switch
-Toxic
-Heal Bell
Lanturn is my Zapdos/Rotom-H-counter, only really fearing trick from the latter. When I bring it in on a fire-type, I can safely Volt Switch out again because they go to a water-resist instead of electric, expecting a water attack. It heals my team so I can afford to take a little status. Scald for STAB and the burn chance, especially for Sableye. Toxic just because it works so well on this team, and often I can Toxic things immune to Toxic Spikes. It originally had a bold nature, but I changed it to calm to better tank special hits, which it does really well. It gets 2HKOed by most neutral physical attacks though, even some resisted ones from the likes of Victini and Darmanitan.
Noe Teit (Walrein) (M) @: Leftovers
Ability: Ice Body
Bold Nature (+Defense-Attack)
EVs: 232 HP / 228 Defense / 48 Speed
IVs: 0 Attack
-Protect
-Substitute
-Roar
-Blizzard
Ah, Stallrein. You can only really love this thing if you're using it. If it can set up a Substitute, it can stall out anything that is poisoned, or PP-stall Close Combats, DynamicPunches and Stone Edges. It's also rather easy setting up a sub, as it with the invested speed outspeeds defensive Hitmontop, as well as most other defensive pokémon in the tier and some offensive ones. It can actually take a hit as well, with enough HP left to set up a sub (Scarf-Flygon does around 50% with Outrage), so it can do its job even if it's outsped. Seeing as it's faster than most defensive pokémon, it can Roar them away before they Roar it. Blizzard for a damaging move against Taunters, as well as having high power and being super-effective against a lot in the tier. People sacrifice their Crobats and Sableyes to Taunt this. The HP EVs give it, combined with Leftovers, 25% HP over 2 turns (Protect) resulting in a lot of Substitutes, and it not really fearing Stealth Rock.
Vivyv (Rotom-F) @: Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
Modest Nature (+Spatk-Attack)
EVs: 252 Spatk / 4 Spdef / 252 Speed
IVs: 0 Attack
-Blizzard
-Thunderbolt
-Volt Switch
-Trick
I have found that this is one of the best offensive hail abusers, considering it packs a very powerful Blizzard, and has Thunderbolt to hit most things that resist it super effectively or neutrally. Volt Switch for momentum. Trick to cripple annoying walls suchs as Umbreon. Many games I can stall out all the opponents pokémon with Walrein, except for one, usually Empoleon/Suicune/Umbreon/Snorlax, and then Trick is particularly useful to hinder their recovery and PP-stall more effectively. I run modest for more power, not risking the speed-tie with Rotom-H and it's outsped by most other scarfers anyway (Flygon, Mineshao), except for Heracross which is handled by Qwilfish or Claydol. 4 EVs in Spdef to give the Porygons a regular attack boost. This thing patches up many of the weaknesses of my team and can easily sweep if its counters are removed (faster scarfers, and ice or electric resists). Levitate gives it free switch-ins on attacks aimed at Lanturn and Qwilfish. Its uninvested HP makes sure that it can switch into rocks 4 times with 1 HP left the last time.
Laser (Claydol) @: Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
Careful Nature (+Spdef-Spatk)
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Defense / 156 Spdef
Shiny: Yes
-Stealth Rock
-Toxic
-Earthquake
-Rapid Spin
Claydol's main job is getting Stealth Rock up and spinning them away if it can. Toxic to break down the other spinners, Blastoise in particular, but it's also nice for ghosts who try to spinblock and pokémon who try to set up. It can take a hit from Nidoking and severly hurt it with STAB Earthquake. Which is something this team really needs. I gave it some EVs in defense to better tank the hits it will take such as Close Combat, Hi Jump Kick, U-Turn, Drain Punch and Stone Edge.
Brofisk (Qwilfish) (M) @: Black Sludge
Ability: Intimidate
Impish Nature (+Defense-Spatk)
EVs: 252 HP / 196 Defense / 60 Speed
-Toxic Spikes
-Toxic
-Pain Split
-Waterfall
This thing can tank most of the hard-hitters in UU, the physical fire- and fighting-types. Lays down Toxic Spikes when all spinners and poison-types are dead. Otherwhise it Toxics walls and switch-ins. Again, Blastoise. Pain Split for longievity and Waterfall for STAB and something to hit stuff with. It's actually fairly powerful even uninvested, and kills the frail fire-types. 60 Speed to speedcreep standard defensive Roserade (Waterfall does 20% at least to Roserade that don't invest in Defense, which can be important in some cases), and to outspeed non-scarf Victini after a V-Create.
Strategy
So this team has a few win conditions. The first one is to remove anything that can spin or absorb Toxic Spikes (grounded Poison-types), set up at least 1 layer of Toxic Spikes (often 1 layer is enough because it does 12% each turn and not starting at 6% like Toxic does, which is better when the opponent switches a lot and don't have any recovery besides Leftovers), Stealth Rock (not really necessary, but things die quicker), and have a Substitute up on Walrein. From here, Walrein can stall out almost any pokémon that are affected by Toxic Spikes (Rock Blast Rhyperior could be a problem but they are mostly defensive and need 4 or 5 hits to hurt it as well as kill the Substitute), and kill many of those who aren't (Crobat, Flygon, Gligar, Honchkrow, Zapdos). The only things it can't kill usually can't hurt Walrein at all (Bronzong, Empoleon, Snorlax, Registeel), so it can just Roar them out and kill all the others before dealing with the last one, usually with Rotom-F.
The other win-condition is to eliminate all ice or electric-resists, and all scarfers that are faster than Rotom-F. With a little prior damage, Rotom-F can then sweep the rest of the opponent's team with little effort.
Conclusion
So I hope you enjoyed reading my first RMT and I look forward to your thoughts and suggestions. If you want to try it out yourself here's the team export:
Screenshot of the ladder
In-depth team building process
The only pokémon with Snow Warning except for Snover, so of course it goes here. Thinking what can abuse hail, I thought of abilities and attacks that benefit from it.
STAB BoltBeam seemed like a good idéa, especially with the power of Blizzard, as there are so few pokémon in UU that resist both types, so I added the freezer. I also added the dreaded Stallrein from 4th gen, having heard tales of it's terror, but never used it myself.
Next I realized I would need some Toxic Spikes support for Stallrein to work properly. I read about Qwilfish in a UU-RMT a long time ago, and it seemed a nice addition to my team considering every UU-team has at least 1 fire- or fighting-type, usually one of each or more. Qwilfish recieved Intimidate from the Dream World so it was the perfect candidate resisting both fire and fighting.
I would need some rocks as well, to chip away at the health of flying-types and effectively reducing the amount of times fire-types could switch in. Rapid Spin support is also nice on a team with lots of ice-types so i went with Claydol, being the only reliable pokémon in UU that could set up rocks, spin and tank hits. I also added Froslass for more hazards in Spikes, a fighting-type immunity, as well as spinblocking.
This team performed fairly well, but it could not quite counter certain pokémon such as Chandelure and Zapdos. I tried a couple of different pokémon over Claydol, first Druddigon, then defensive Kabutops (it could tank fire attacks pretty well), but Zapdos still raped me. Thinking of a Zapdos-counter I came up with Lanturn. It would also give me Heal Bell support, which is useful in all cases, but I needed it mostly to heal Walrein should it get an accidental burn from Scald or get paralyzed by Thunder Wave. I knew I needed a ground-type to help tank Stone Edge and other moves so I went with Nidoqueen over Froslass, as it has rocks and is a very good counter to fighting-types in general.
This was the version of the team I used the most while laddering, but I figured Nidoqueen wasn't doing very much except for taking hits and giving me another ground-weakness, and I needed something that could tank Psychic-attacks. Spinning would also be welcome so I went back to Claydol which turned out great.
A closer look
Puletre (Abomasnow) (F) @: Leftovers
Ability: Snow Warning
Adamant Nature (+Atk-Spatk)
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Attack / 4 Speed
Shiny: Yes
-Ice Shard
-Wood Hammer
-Leech Seed
-Protect
This thing starts up the blizzard and can actually dent and take a good deal of hits. Ice Shard 2HKOes all Roserade, and the defensive variant can't even OHKO with Sludge Bomb. Wood Hammer hits like, well, a hammer, smashing everything that doesn't resist it. Leech Seed is always awesome, and gives Abomasnow a lot more staying power. With Protect this thing is quite the staller. I usually lead with this, protecting the first turn to scout for choice users (Chandelure, Rotom-H, Darmanitan, Victini) before I go to a resist. This team is very much about residual damage and every Protect steals away 6% more health from things without Leftovers, and effectively neutralize Leftover recovery for pokémon who rely on it to heal, as well as giving it more HP from it's own Leftovers and often Leech Seed.
Blinkefisk (Lanturn) (M) @: Leftovers
Ability: Volt Absorb
Calm Nature (+Spdef-Atk)
EVs: 52 HP / 204 Defense / 252 Spdef
IVs: 0 Attack
-Scald
-Volt Switch
-Toxic
-Heal Bell
Lanturn is my Zapdos/Rotom-H-counter, only really fearing trick from the latter. When I bring it in on a fire-type, I can safely Volt Switch out again because they go to a water-resist instead of electric, expecting a water attack. It heals my team so I can afford to take a little status. Scald for STAB and the burn chance, especially for Sableye. Toxic just because it works so well on this team, and often I can Toxic things immune to Toxic Spikes. It originally had a bold nature, but I changed it to calm to better tank special hits, which it does really well. It gets 2HKOed by most neutral physical attacks though, even some resisted ones from the likes of Victini and Darmanitan.
Noe Teit (Walrein) (M) @: Leftovers
Ability: Ice Body
Bold Nature (+Defense-Attack)
EVs: 232 HP / 228 Defense / 48 Speed
IVs: 0 Attack
-Protect
-Substitute
-Roar
-Blizzard
Ah, Stallrein. You can only really love this thing if you're using it. If it can set up a Substitute, it can stall out anything that is poisoned, or PP-stall Close Combats, DynamicPunches and Stone Edges. It's also rather easy setting up a sub, as it with the invested speed outspeeds defensive Hitmontop, as well as most other defensive pokémon in the tier and some offensive ones. It can actually take a hit as well, with enough HP left to set up a sub (Scarf-Flygon does around 50% with Outrage), so it can do its job even if it's outsped. Seeing as it's faster than most defensive pokémon, it can Roar them away before they Roar it. Blizzard for a damaging move against Taunters, as well as having high power and being super-effective against a lot in the tier. People sacrifice their Crobats and Sableyes to Taunt this. The HP EVs give it, combined with Leftovers, 25% HP over 2 turns (Protect) resulting in a lot of Substitutes, and it not really fearing Stealth Rock.
Vivyv (Rotom-F) @: Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
Modest Nature (+Spatk-Attack)
EVs: 252 Spatk / 4 Spdef / 252 Speed
IVs: 0 Attack
-Blizzard
-Thunderbolt
-Volt Switch
-Trick
I have found that this is one of the best offensive hail abusers, considering it packs a very powerful Blizzard, and has Thunderbolt to hit most things that resist it super effectively or neutrally. Volt Switch for momentum. Trick to cripple annoying walls suchs as Umbreon. Many games I can stall out all the opponents pokémon with Walrein, except for one, usually Empoleon/Suicune/Umbreon/Snorlax, and then Trick is particularly useful to hinder their recovery and PP-stall more effectively. I run modest for more power, not risking the speed-tie with Rotom-H and it's outsped by most other scarfers anyway (Flygon, Mineshao), except for Heracross which is handled by Qwilfish or Claydol. 4 EVs in Spdef to give the Porygons a regular attack boost. This thing patches up many of the weaknesses of my team and can easily sweep if its counters are removed (faster scarfers, and ice or electric resists). Levitate gives it free switch-ins on attacks aimed at Lanturn and Qwilfish. Its uninvested HP makes sure that it can switch into rocks 4 times with 1 HP left the last time.
Laser (Claydol) @: Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
Careful Nature (+Spdef-Spatk)
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Defense / 156 Spdef
Shiny: Yes
-Stealth Rock
-Toxic
-Earthquake
-Rapid Spin
Claydol's main job is getting Stealth Rock up and spinning them away if it can. Toxic to break down the other spinners, Blastoise in particular, but it's also nice for ghosts who try to spinblock and pokémon who try to set up. It can take a hit from Nidoking and severly hurt it with STAB Earthquake. Which is something this team really needs. I gave it some EVs in defense to better tank the hits it will take such as Close Combat, Hi Jump Kick, U-Turn, Drain Punch and Stone Edge.
Brofisk (Qwilfish) (M) @: Black Sludge
Ability: Intimidate
Impish Nature (+Defense-Spatk)
EVs: 252 HP / 196 Defense / 60 Speed
-Toxic Spikes
-Toxic
-Pain Split
-Waterfall
This thing can tank most of the hard-hitters in UU, the physical fire- and fighting-types. Lays down Toxic Spikes when all spinners and poison-types are dead. Otherwhise it Toxics walls and switch-ins. Again, Blastoise. Pain Split for longievity and Waterfall for STAB and something to hit stuff with. It's actually fairly powerful even uninvested, and kills the frail fire-types. 60 Speed to speedcreep standard defensive Roserade (Waterfall does 20% at least to Roserade that don't invest in Defense, which can be important in some cases), and to outspeed non-scarf Victini after a V-Create.
Strategy
So this team has a few win conditions. The first one is to remove anything that can spin or absorb Toxic Spikes (grounded Poison-types), set up at least 1 layer of Toxic Spikes (often 1 layer is enough because it does 12% each turn and not starting at 6% like Toxic does, which is better when the opponent switches a lot and don't have any recovery besides Leftovers), Stealth Rock (not really necessary, but things die quicker), and have a Substitute up on Walrein. From here, Walrein can stall out almost any pokémon that are affected by Toxic Spikes (Rock Blast Rhyperior could be a problem but they are mostly defensive and need 4 or 5 hits to hurt it as well as kill the Substitute), and kill many of those who aren't (Crobat, Flygon, Gligar, Honchkrow, Zapdos). The only things it can't kill usually can't hurt Walrein at all (Bronzong, Empoleon, Snorlax, Registeel), so it can just Roar them out and kill all the others before dealing with the last one, usually with Rotom-F.
The other win-condition is to eliminate all ice or electric-resists, and all scarfers that are faster than Rotom-F. With a little prior damage, Rotom-F can then sweep the rest of the opponent's team with little effort.
Conclusion
So I hope you enjoyed reading my first RMT and I look forward to your thoughts and suggestions. If you want to try it out yourself here's the team export:
Code:
Puletre (Abomasnow) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Snow Warning
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Ice Shard
- Wood Hammer
- Leech Seed
- Protect
Blinkefisk (Lanturn) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Volt Absorb
EVs: 52 HP / 252 SDef / 204 Def
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Volt Switch
- Toxic
- Heal Bell
Noe teit (Walrein) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Ice Body
EVs: 232 HP / 228 Def / 48 Spd
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Protect
- Substitute
- Roar
- Blizzard
Vivyv (Rotom-Frost) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Blizzard
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Trick
Laser (Claydol) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Def / 156 SDef
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin
Brofisk (Qwilfish) (M) @ Black Sludge
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 196 Def / 60 Spd
Impish Nature
- Toxic Spikes
- Toxic
- Pain Split
- Waterfall
