Hail team (revised)

[aerialace TM40]

This is the 1st time using RMT (other than stealing other people's teams), and to be quite frank, I'm not even sure if I'm making a thread in the correct location. Without further ado, allow me to provide a little introduction. I've been killin it in OU and LC for far too long lol so I figured I would test out UU. I stole a couple UU teams from RMT, and didn't really like them, so I decided to conjure up one of my own. I tried a bunch of combinations...yada yada yada...This is what I came up with. I'm here on RMT because it's a pretty awful team and I can only win against complete idiots; I would enjoy some constructive criticism from you fine folk browsing Smogon.

Abomasnow @ Expert Belt
Trait: Snow Warning
EVs: 148 Atk / 120 SAtk / 240 Spd
Hasty Nature
- Blizzard
- Wood Hammer
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake

After playing a few games in UU I noticed the lack of weather when compared to OU (for obvious reasons), so I felt like starting my team off with Abomasnow. He's a bad mama-jama and I made this one a mixed attacker so I can surprise people with EQ. The wood hammer is there almost specifically for politoed if mi opponent expects a blizzard coming, and the EV spread was actually taken from someone else's RMT of an OU hail team that I used for a little while and found moderate success with. The ice shard is a must, and since the situation can easily call for two different moves one after the other, I elected to use expert belt instead of a choice scarf, which seems to be a popular set with smowman.

Jynx (F) @ Expert Belt
Trait: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 Spd / 4 HP / 252 SAtk
Timid Nature
- Blizzard
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
- Nasty Plot

Jynx is my sassy black woman who doesn't listen to nobody..More realistically, she has good speed and special attack so I chose her as a sweeper. I arbitrarily chose expert belt just because of her good coverage, but I'm having second thoughts about it, and am in the process of trying out a scarf on her. In the matches that I actually win with this team, she usually KO's 2-4 pokes in a row, and if my opponent lets me get a nasty plot in, it's GG.

Hitmontop (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Aerial Ace
- Mach Punch
- Sucker Punch

This is where it gets a little tricky. I want a spinner (or bouncer o_O) on this team because of the multiple ice types that get worn down so quickly by SR. I like having top man on this team due to his mach punch, which comes in handy against a couple of pokes, but I was thinking about switching to a different spinner. It just seems like his only job is to spin and he isn't capable of much more. Sucker punch is a fantastic move that will catch idiots off guard 100% of the time. Finally, I had to teach him aerial ace because..well..yeah. The EV's are very basic as you can see, and I do like to have a poke with intimidate. I am VERY open to suggestions as I am new to this tier and august won't teach me RU.

Bronzong @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 180 SDef / 252 HP / 76 Atk
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Stealth Rock
- Gyro Ball
- Toxic
- Earthquake

This guy is a tank and I think I want him to stay on the team. His role is to be my defense man and get up SR. Ideally, I want him alive for as long as I can so that I always have someone to take hard hits and force a switch, and with glaceon wish, it is not too hard to keep this guy goin all match long. I grabbed this set from smogon as I figured it would suffice for my entry level UU knowledge. The best part of bronze man I think is his surprising ability to hit hard with gyro ball and EQ.

Chandelure @ Choice Specs
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Fire Blast
- Shadow Ball
- Energy Ball
- Trick

Chandelier man is a good poke for this team because he absorbs all those fire moves and depending on what mi opponent has left, I can either trick him or just pick a move and go from there. I had arcanine in this spot initially, but he wasn't really getting the job done. Candle boy has a very similar role to that of Jynx's, and I want to do something to change that. As I would love to have multiple hard hitting pokes on my team, I don't want their roles to overlap, but the flash fire ability definitely helps a lot with this team.

Glaceon @ Life Orb
Trait: Ice Body
EVs: 252 HP / 16 Spd / 240 SAtk
Modest Nature
- Wish
- Blizzard
- Shadow Ball
- Protect

Finally, I chose glaceon because I wanted to utilize the hail by having a poke with ice body, which is a pretty neat abirity in my opinion. I wasn't too fond of glaceon's stats, but I chose her over walrus man and regice nearly arbitrarily (I did like her SAtk). Again, there is a somewhat of an overlap in roles with glaceon, abomasnow, and jynx just because they all know blizzard. I love taking advantage of the fact that it has 100% accuracy in hail, but I'm not quite sure if half my team needs to know it. Her SAtk is insane and with LO it is 1.3 times insane; the only drawback is her speed, so she usually doesn't stay alive too long, as I'm not very familiar with many of the poke's speeds in UU.

OK this is my second attempt at submitting this RMT, so I hope I did it in a manner that is approved by my viewers..Thanks for reading! _

 

[PTJon7]

Hey nice RMT man, welcome to UU!

A common mistake when people make Hail teams in UU is an overabundance of Ice types, having half of your team as Ice types really limits it. A team with 4 weaknesses to Stealth Rock is never a good thing, especially in a tier where rapid spinners have such a hard time doing their job. In my opinion a good Hail team should have 2 Ice types, Abomasnow and a Blizzard spammer.

Jynx seems interesting and I've never used it in UU so I can't really say whether its good or not. Glaceon is definitely the most powerful Blizzard spammer at your disposal, but that's all it can really do. In my opinion though Rotom-Frost is the best one for UU, not only does it pack boltbeam STABs it has some really handy resistances and an immunity to Ground. While it is a little weaker and a lot slower than Jynx its far superior bulk help makes up for it.

Another problem you've undoubtedly faced is Fire types. With only Chandelure as a solid switch in to a Flare Blitz or V-Create, its not hard for an opposing team to deal significant damage with Darmanitan, Victini, or Chandelure. Therefore, I suggest replacing Glaceon/Jynx with a really solid Fire resist. The two best ones I can think of right now are Kingdra, who 4x resists Fire, and Rhyperior, whose massive bulk lets it tank Fire attacks for days. I've enjoyed using DD Kingdra on a Hail team before, but Rhyperior would help give this team a lot more bulk.

I hope this helps, good luck!

 

[Psychotic]

Hi there, glad you decided to begin playing UU!

Moveset Suggestions:
This team really needs a scarfer. Without one, both Zapdos and LO Mienshao will stomp all over this team. I don't think you should change Glaceon to Rotom-F, but you definitely should change Life Orb on Glaceon to Scarf. This lets you revenge kill these two threats as well as Specs Chandelure, another huge problem. Glaceon is too slow to function as a Life Orb sweeper anyway, your current set isn't optimal. Your team has no real endgame, and a scarfer is exactly what your team needs to clean up lategame, when the enemy is worn down. You can use Baton Pass on this set to scout for Steel or Snorlax switch-ins, giving you the switch advantage and momentum. The other moveset you definitely need to change is Hitmontop's. The max Speed and Attack EV spread you have given him does not allow Top to check physical threats very well, if you want to use Hitmontop, go max Defense and HP. Mach Punch does pitiful damage without Technician, and is only useful in specific situations. Mach Punch should be exchanged for Close Combat, which is more consistent and deals more damage. You can also exchange Aerial Ace for Toxic or Foresight, but Heracross is a threat to your team, so you may want to keep it.

Teammate Suggestions:
I agree with PTJohn about your fire weakness, and think that Jynx is the most replaceable member of your team, as you are already using Glaceon and just compounding your fire and rock weakness by using 3 ice types. Using Calm Mind Suicune over Jynx gives you the bulky water type that your team needs, otherwise you will continue to get run over by Chandelure, Darmanitan, and Victini. You also gain another win condition in Suicune, who can boost up and sweep unprepared teams quite easily. Even if you don't run Suicune, your team absolutely needs a fire type check outside of your own Chandelure.

Suggested Changes:

Hide

Glaceon @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Ice Body
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Blizzard
- Shadow Ball
- Baton Pass
- Signal Beam

Hitmontop (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SDef / 4 Spd
Impish Nature
- Close Combat
- Rapid Spin
- Sucker Punch
- Aerial Ace

Suicune @ Leftovers
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 SAtk
Bold Nature
- Calm Mind
- Rest
- Scald
- Sleep Talk

 

[FirstWorldProblems]

Hey man, nice team!

Suggestion-wise:-
•I'd use Close Combat over Aerial Ace or Mach Punch, as it allows Hitmontop to use a powerful attack against many Steel-types such as Empoleon etc. Or Foresight so you can spin on incoming Ghost-type Pokémon such as Chandelure.
•Use 252 HP / 252 Def+ / 4 Spd so you can take hits from Victini, Darmanitan, Mienshao and the likes very well.
•Replace an Ice-type for either Milotic, Slowbro or Suicune so you can do something useful outside of Hail and to overcome your Fire-type weakness.

Good luck with exceeding with your team!

 

[Aecor]

I would suggest having Foresight over Aerial Ace for Hitmontop on your team. This would slightly alleviate your SR weakness problem. I would also suggest swapping out Jynx for some sort of Suicine. A CroCune would be pretty good; however, as Psych suggested, an offensive Suicine with Calm Mind, Scald, Blizzard and a filler move would be great.

 

[aerialace TM40]

Thanks everyone for the tips and suggestions; PTJon7, based on your suggestions, I think I'll change glaceon into rhyperior, and give jynx a scarf and see how that works. If I'm not happy with that, I will give kingdra or suicine a try, and have some fun with that. As for hitmontop, I will definitely give him 252 HP and Def; looking back, it was pretty stupid of me to give him attack and speed EVs. I'm gonna test out close combat instead of aerial ace on him. I gave SR to rhyperior, so I switched bronzong into slowking to see how that works out.

 

[aerialace TM40]

Here is what the team looks like now

snowmane (Abomasnow) @ Expert Belt
Trait: Snow Warning
EVs: 148 Atk / 120 SAtk / 240 Spd
Hasty Nature
- Blizzard
- Wood Hammer
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake

queen latifah (Jynx) (F) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Dry Skin
EVs: 252 Spd / 4 HP / 252 SAtk
Modest Nature
- Blizzard
- Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
- Trick

beyblade lol (Hitmontop) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def/ 4 Spd
Impish Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Close Combat
- Mach Punch
- Sucker Punch

rock boy (Rhyperior) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Solid Rock
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Atk / 180 Def
Impish Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Rock Blast
- Megahorn

candle boy (Chandelure) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Flame Body
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Fire Blast
- Shadow Ball
- Energy Ball
- Trick

turtle (Slowking) @ Leftovers
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 44 SAtk / 212 SDef
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Fire Blast
- Toxic
- Slack Off


Thanks again for the help..I'm winning around 90% of my games with this team. Transition to UU = great success

 

[PTJon7]

It looks much better, nice job!