click on sprites for the Pokepaste!
What am I doing? Ruining another low tier with Hail HO.
When? Just in time for grand slam
Why? Poggers.
I don't care. Cry about it. I will continue to degrade low tier ladders with hail and share my abomisnowations with the of the world. Jokes aside, I hope you enjoy this team as much as I do, cause sweeping on the latter with good ole 'vish is oddly nostalgic after abusing it NU a year ago. Full disclaimer: I don't know RU! I barely played it in gen8 and I just started this ladder grind literally yesterday. I figured the RMT would both allow me to gloat and get tips about a meta a barely know.
Aurorus @ Focus Sash
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Blizzard
- Earth Power
- Encore
- Stealth Rock
Sandslash-Alola @ Wide Lens
Ability: Slush Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Triple Axel
Arctovish @ Choice Band
Ability: Slush Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fishious Rend
- Icicle Crash
- Freeze-Dry
- Stone Edge
Flygon @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 172 HP / 112 Atk / 224 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Roost
- Defog
Doublade @ Eviolite
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 220 HP / 252 Atk / 36 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Shadow Sneak
- Shadow Claw
- Close Combat
Abomasnow @ Icy Rock
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Ice Shard
- Wood Hammer
- Earthquake
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Blizzard
- Earth Power
- Encore
- Stealth Rock
Sandslash-Alola @ Wide Lens
Ability: Slush Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Triple Axel
Arctovish @ Choice Band
Ability: Slush Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fishious Rend
- Icicle Crash
- Freeze-Dry
- Stone Edge
Flygon @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 172 HP / 112 Atk / 224 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Roost
- Defog
Doublade @ Eviolite
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 220 HP / 252 Atk / 36 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Shadow Sneak
- Shadow Claw
- Close Combat
Abomasnow @ Icy Rock
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Ice Shard
- Wood Hammer
- Earthquake
1. The Setters
Aurorus @ Focus Sash
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Blizzard
- Earth Power
- Encore
- Stealth Rock
Aurorus is a really great lead traditionally on hail HO. You force a ton of great nasty scenarios for your opponent that usually puts you in a great situation momentum-wise. This is thanks to Snow Warning support, Stealth Rock usage, Encore pressure, and strong Ice- and Ground-type coverage all backed up by the security of focus sash. Something like Cobalion can't afford to Close Combat or it'll eat an Earth Power, whereas walls like Registeel and Umbreon cannot afford to Stealth Rock / recover thanks to the following Encore. Just play Aurorus very expendably and don't worry about keeping it in the late-game unless you're certain you can save it for a worthwhile matchup later. More often than not, it's just better to get a couple turns out of Aurorus and let it ket KO'd to bring in a Slush Rush sweeper.
Abomasnow @ Icy Rock
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Ice Shard
- Wood Hammer
- Earthquake
Out of the remaining two Snow Warning users, user "Yourwelcomethanku" recommended me Abomasnow. Thanks! The Grass-typing is a huge help offensively to pressure the Water-type walls of Milotic and Suicune. Despite being the team's Scald switch-in, I still opted for a physical Swords Dance set. The boosting is needed to both break a lot of walls as well as force revenge killers in; that's a good thing for netting momentum for your Slush Rush sweepers. I gotta say on its own it's been doing very well. Abomasnow is a little antimeta as a wallbreaker with its coverage + Ice Shard to take out weakened, faster attackers, especially Flying- and Dragon-types like Flygon, Crobat, and Noivern. Priority in general can be pretty good given hail teams rack up chip damage from hail and the offensive support, so getting into a +2 Ice Shard sweep scenario is likely. At its worst, Abomasnow is just used as an extended hail supporter with Icy Rock rather than a more fitting item, so don't worry about just sacking it for the sake of setting hail.
2. The Sweepers
Arctovish @ Choice Band
Ability: Slush Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fishious Rend
- Icicle Crash
- Freeze-Dry
- Stone Edge
HUH. THE VISH!? Dude wtf this thing is legit insane legit a movie in here are you for real get real wtf why is this legal. Fishious Rend should be o u t l a w e d. Legit just destroys the tier, and with hail chip? Guess what, even Milotic isn't a good switch-in. You're faster than everything bar Choice Scarf users so that Fishious Rend boost almost always works. What can switch into Fishious Rend really just includes Pokemon immune to Water like Gastrodon, Seismitoad, and Volcanion. However, Freeze-Dry / Icicle Crash and Stone Edge still does a ton to these three, with Icicle Crash also revenge killing a good chunk of targets not OHKOed by Fishious Rend. Needless to say, Arctovish is the star of the team. Keeping it healthy and creating windows to spam its STAB attacks should be your number one priority.
Sandslash-Alola @ Wide Lens
Ability: Slush Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Triple Axel
The backup hail sweeper, Alolan Sandslash still has a lot of good feats of its own. For starters, it's a lot faster under hail and is actually capable of outspeeding common Choice Scarf users like Flygon and Xurkitree. There's also some good utility out of Knock Off + Earthquake for targeting specific walls like Jellicent and Registeel. Mostly, though, Alolan Sandslash should pickup where Artcovish leaves off after it breaks through. This is in fact––count em––the fourth Ice-type on the team, so the repeated Ice-type attacks will eventually leave way for a Triple Axel sweep; boosted or not. That's why Wide Lens is so important, because turning it was iirc a ~72% chance of hitting all three into a ~97% chance is really important for consistent cleaning. Feel free to also sack Alolan Sandslash if you get the necessary chip damage, like through Knock Off, if it means that then Arctovish can sweep; or vice versa! These two really help eachother out for cleaning, so use one as a wallbreaker and the other as a cleaner, but in general I'd still say that Arctovish should be the priority cause Fishious Rend is bonkers.
3. The Support
Flygon @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 172 HP / 112 Atk / 224 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Roost
- Defog
This is just the importable Flygon spread, and as support, Flygon's teamwork makes the dreamwork. Resisting Fire is invaluable, but so is Rocky Helmet chip + Defog + pivoting + blocking Volt Switch + softchecking just a ton of different threats thanks to a great mix of bulk and speed. There's also the bulky-offensive angle with Flygon and STAB Earthquake, being a good deterrence to Registeel and Metagross. Flygon's bulk does fall short in a lot of areas where it doesn't have the safety of a resistance, but even then, again, Rocky Helmet chip + sack + bringing in a Slush Rusher is usually more than enough. So don't think you have to play Flygon conservatively, as you're probably more often than not better off playing Flygon expendably and just using it when you need a pivot or Defog. Just don't sack it when say Incineroar or Darminitain is still around because deterring Flare Blitz is a huge merit.
I knew I was missing something with this team until I discovered Doublade. I knew that a setup Ghost-type is mandatory on hail HO because you want something to punish Choice-locked Fighting-types and Fighting-type attacks. At first I had Mimikyu, and while that worked a lot of the time, I was losing hard to Cobalion and Cloyster. Enter Doublade, which I feel like is criminally under ranked at the moment. Setup Ghost-types in general are nice with all the Fighting- and Psychic-types, and while there is Mimikyu for most teams, the Cobalion matchup and better bulk is so good with Doublade. There's still a ton of limitations like the awful special bulk and losing to Foul Play Umbreon, though the team patches those faults up elsewhere. There's a ton of great scenarios with Doublade: my favorite is staying in with Alolan Sandslash to Swords Dance versus a Fighting-type, and if they KO, then Doublade can get in to setup, but if they over predict and switch out, then boom you just got a Slush Rusher to +2. Sick.
Replays:
I really don't have much unfort. Here's what I do have.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ru-1531590060 vs Volcanion
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ru-1530853650-avxenm0p6rne5sbm8hvtt98ac0dg8n8pw vs Milotic
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ru-1531603956-9u6mb6mn7mwbq9l9g3830anvdaiwou2pw a literal mirror match.
Anyways please have fun and use the team as much as you want and ruin another ladder / grand slam with hail. Let me know how you do with the team and what do you think I could do to improve it.
