Black Ice, an OU hail RMT

[Nysyr]

Intro

Laddering in the past I promised to myself I wouldn’t use Sun or Rain teams and Sand didn’t appeal to me. After futile attempts to build a non weather team that wouldn’t run into something that completely was impossible to deal with, I fell back to my first playstyle I used when I first started battling competitively (albeit it was BW1 UU), Hail. With Abomasnow falling to UU, an undeserved fate, I figured I would take advantage of teams not preparing for hail properly but at the same time not falling victim to counters like my non weather teams did.

Apologies I’m not one for fancy Pictures or Layouts.


Currently 30-5 after starting 15-5 with different teams; 1820 ACRE, since some people think rating matters.

Team Building Process

If you want hail you start with Abomasnow.

Spinner obligatory since I’m using hail, Starmie gives me the most reliable spin

Needed a stealth rocker, chose Garchomp. Garchomp is the easiest stealth rock setter when you are constrained in choices and synergy.

I needed a hail abuser, Kyurem-B is the only hail abuser.

Team was lacking a way to deal with faster threats that Garchomp and Kyu-B couldn’t touch, so I brought in Keldeo to help alleviate this.

I needed to use this last slot to patch up any weaknesses I hadn’t covered, Skarmory seemed to be the best fit, and hasn’t let me down yet.

Abomasnow @ Expert Belt
Trait: Snow Warning
EVs: 248 Atk / 164 SAtk / 96 Spd
Lonely Nature
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Ice Shard
- Wood Hammer
- Protect

No hail based team can start without Abomasnow. I’ve come to find in this meta that if you don’t run a weather changer to deal with opposing weathers such as sun and rain, you need to dedicate more team slots to sponge boosted attacks and faster sweepers. The set is standard off the website as it can put the most pressure on both its counters/checks, and opposing weather such as Tyranitar and Politoed.

My EVs are a bit different from the main sites. 96 Speed allows me to speedcreep Politoed and Tyranitar speed creeping toed (o_O). The Special attack EVs allow me to OHKO standard banded scizor after protect, so I can see if it will U-turn or bullet punch, allowing me to react accordingly. Rest goes into attack.

Starmie @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 248 HP / 4 SAtk / 224 Spd / 28 Def
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Scald
- Rapid Spin
- Recover

Step one of using ice types on a team: Add a spinner. Starmie brings a reliable rapid spin to get rocks out of the way for Kyu-B and snow to switch in more freely, and helps keep me ahead of stall teams. Although this set can’t spin against defensive jellicent very well, it can OHKO Gengar without investment, essentially destroying custap Skarm + Gengar teams. Natural cure gives me a scald/wow/toxic sponge for the team as well.

Starmie also brings me a much needed fighting resist to the team, as well a fire resist. Starmie doesn’t fear any rain attacks outside crit hydro pumps from specs toed or Keldeo.

EVs and IVs are standard off smogon. Defensive set allows for more longevity, and I don’t like stacking recoil while I myself take damage from hail.

Garchomp @ Rocky Helmet
Trait: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Stealth Rock
- Fire Blast

I needed a stealth rock user for my team, and the two most viable ones in this offensive meta are Garchomp and Terrakion. Since I’m using hail, terrakion doesn’t really fit the bill, and was stacking more fighting weaknesses, so I picked Garchomp for the job.

Garchomp is sun and VoltTurn’s big daddy, not caring for either. He gives mostly perfect type matchup with Skarmory, allowing me to manhandle my biggest weakness to running with Abomasnow: Scizor. For the item I chose Rocky Helmet, since it fit the teams hail chip damage theme. Rocky Helmet stacks nicely with hail, and Garchomp’s rough skin to rack up damage on physical hitters very quickly, and I can throw out Garchomp as a last resort to get damage in on faster pokes to put them in revenge kill range for ‘snow

Moveset and EVs is standard, and allows me to beat every spinner and hazard setter quite reliably. Starmie with ice beam is the only exception to this rule.

Kyurem-Black @ Leftovers
Trait: Teravolt
EVs: 200 Atk / 252 Spd / 56 HP
Lonely Nature
- Fusion Bolt
- Blizzard
- Dragon Claw
- Substitute

What’s the point of running hail over sand you ask? This monster is why. Sub Kyurem-B is one of the hardest threats to play around in the metagame, even more so when your lefties recovery is negated by hail, and blizzard is given 100% accuracy, meaning Ferrothorn is a shaky check at best. Hail is also quite lovely to bring for this set since it means sandstorm doesn’t negate my recovery.

Moveset is physical, since Blizzard is mainly there to hit just Ferrothorn, Gliscor, and Lando-T. Physical set is definitely the most threatening to deal with as physical walls have dropped in usage thanks to Hydro spam, Venu, and Lando-I being rampant. Fusion bolt and Blizzard give BoltBeam coverage, and Dclaw hits everything else. Only Magnezone resists these moves.

EVs are a tad different... 56 HP hits 405 for SR and 101 HP subs. Max speed because I like speed creeping other things. If it comes down to Kyu-B vs Kyu-B I’d like to win the speed matchup, and since I don’t run HP fire I’m not super inclined to drop the speed. Rest is dumped into attack.

Kyu-B is this teams MVP, and he wants his uber status back.

Keldeo @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 Def
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 Def
- Surf
- Hydro Pump
- Secret Sword
- Hidden Power [Ice]
Something my teams have been lacking lately is a reliable revenge killer. I already have priority in ‘snow, but I lacked something to take care of faster threats. Keldeo fits the bill quite nicely, having very few things that counter it and make it lose momentum. Those that do steal Keldeo’s momentum make for great opportunities to spin, set up hazards, and get a free sub with Kyu-B.

Moveset and IV’s are standard; Hidden Power ice hits everything I need to revenge, such as dragons.

Actions speak louder than words with Keldeo, and being a candidate for the next suspect test should say it all.

Skarmory @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 224 HP / 32 Spd / 252 SDef
Careful Nature
- Spikes
- Brave Bird
- Whirlwind
- Roost

Skarmory was the final glue for this team. This team loves hazard support, and Skarmory is the least dead weight of all the setters. Skarmory also brings very important resists to the team, namely grass, bug, and dragon resists.

Since Skarmory is important for checking things, unlike Garchomp who is there to get rocks up fast, and try to keep them there, I went with leftovers to help negate the hail residual. Standard set is standard because it works, although Drill Peck is always a consideration. Drill Peck is noticeably less powerful however, and sometimes it’s best to die while taking something out to not give opportunities to the opponent to come in on Skarmory and spin while it’s at low health.


For the EVs I went with a specially defensive set, as Skarmory is already very physically bulky without much investment, and I need him to take a draco meteor from time to time, since those threaten out Garchomp and Kyu-B quite easily.


Importable:

Abomasnow @ Expert Belt
Trait: Snow Warning
EVs: 248 Atk / 164 SAtk / 96 Spd
Lonely Nature
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Ice Shard
- Wood Hammer
- Protect
 
Starmie @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 224 Spd / 4 Def
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Scald
- Rapid Spin
- Recover
 
Garchomp @ Rocky Helmet
Trait: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Stealth Rock
- Fire Blast
 
Keldeo @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 Def
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 Def
- Surf
- Hydro Pump
- Secret Sword
- Hidden Power [Ice]
 
Kyurem-Black @ Leftovers
Trait: Teravolt
EVs: 200 Atk / 252 Spd / 56 HP
Lonely Nature
- Fusion Bolt
- Blizzard
- Dragon Claw
- Substitute
 
Skarmory @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 224 HP / 32 Spd / 252 SDef
Careful Nature
- Spikes
- Brave Bird
- Whirlwind
- Roost

 

[Scotti]

nICE team you get there nysyr, you get it ICE and Hail team lol anyway onto the rate. The biggest weakness that i can find is Scarf Latios. It one hits everything beside Skarmory and Starmie. If it runs HP Fire it 2hko Skarmory and KO Abomasnow. The worst part is that it Outspeed your whole team. I suggest you replace either Skarmory or Garchomp with Specially Defensive Jirachi. It can setup Stealth Rock, add momentum with U-Turn and it can pass wishes.

Here is the Set:

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 236 SDef / 20 Spd
Careful Nature
- Iron Head
- Body Slam
- Wish
- Stealth Rock

Hope i Helped =)

 

[Nysyr]

Jirachi lacks the instant recovery, bug resist, offensive pressure, and lack of hail synergy that skarmory brings. LO latias is the only one to worry about and there is no pokemon on the team he can freely use HP fire on to predic skarm coming in, and that's only if I switch into its attack. Jirachi is still 3hkoed by LO HP fire, and if its damaged at all its 2hko as well. LO latios still has to lose 32%+ to kill skarmory, and that's only if I choose to sac it and he predicted perfectly.

 

[vyomov]

Just a thought, why not replace Skarmory with Specially Defensive Heatran? It has better synergy with hail than Skarmory and has high offensive capabilities as well?

Heatran@Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP/8 Def/252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Lava Plume
- Protect
- Roar
- Toxic

This counters all the fire-types trying to come in on Abomasnow and also offers a very useful set of resists for the team.
Best of luck!

 

[Nysyr]

Like jirachi, heatran is weak to Mamoswine, which I'd rather not stack things on my team for it to rape. Heatran lacks recovery in hail, and also does not fair well against the fighting and ground types hanging out today. This team also needs spikes to keep up the pressure.

If Lati@s runs surf, heatran doesn't do much anyways. You have to remember that even if you bring heatran in to take a draco, it's not getting that health back ever.

 

[Jirachee]

hey cool team

one thing I see is that you appear to be particularly weak to fighting types, especially terrakion since your only fighting resist is the very frail Starmie, and your Skarmory is running a sdef spread. Whenever something like cb terrak switches in, it will do massive damage since close combat does well over 60 to everything on your team. Other fighting types like Lucario, Breloom, etc. can also be troublesome even though they're less powerful as they can clean your team with a bit of hazards and good play. A quick fix that won't change your team a lot would be running Lando-T over Garchomp. Lando-T tanks Fighting attacks really easily and Terrakion can't do much to it. As for the rest, it's pretty similar to Garchomp without Fire Blast and Outrage I guess, but you get U-turn which is pretty cool.

You don't need all that Speed on Starmie, as you can't win 1v1 Starmie fights with only Scald and Psyshock, especially against those with Electric attacks who usually run max Speed. You have Kyurem-B anyway who stops offensive Starmie cold, as well as Abomasnow. I'd run just enough to outspeed Tornadus-I, the next fastest thing, which requires 224 EVs. You can invest the rest in Defense so it can take random physical attacks better.

here's the set you should use:

Landorus-T (Landorus-Therian) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 48 Spd / 216 HP / 244 Def
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- U-turn
- Stone Edge

good luck.

 

[Nysyr]

Speed on starmie is mainly for Scarf base 60s with a + nature, and mainly to roll 50/50 on getting a spin off against other starmie if they do pack the tbolt.

Lando-T would be a good option, however there's mainly a flaw with using it on hail, since it can only switch in to terrakion's stone edge once if SR is up due to no lefties recovery in hail. It also can't beat spinners to any degree. Loom will still outspeed Lando-T, and ever though he can take a mach punch at +whatever, loom will still sleep/ko him with +1 bullet seed without fail.

Can't count on both hands and feet just how many times loom crit a bullet seed thru intimidate on me.

Dealing with loom and terrakion is basically throwing in garchomp after they sleep something to get the damage in on them, so starmie can deal with them after.

I may test running banded scizor over skarmory for lati@s trap, terrakions nightmare, and chip damage against breloom.

 

[Nysyr]

Tried Scizor Jirachi and Lando-T, none worked as well as Skarm did.

Did change Starmies EVs a bit for SR, lower speed and put the rest into defence.

I'll consider this my one and only bump.

Fixed up a bad edit. Currently looking for a Keldeo replacement if I am to take this team onto the future suspect ladder for Keldeo.