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DB's Monotype Hail Team - Pokemon (Showdown)

  • December 8, 2017

    Ugh, I have no idea why but I've really gotten into the idea of weather teams. I think it kind of started when I realized how freaking amazing Stoutland can be on a Sandstorm team because he's got Sand Rush (Choice Band + Sand Rush Stoutland is a beast, plus he's got amazing coverage). But I've never really tried to create a Hail team because I think the Ice Type is kinda trash (it's good against Dragons... and youuuu know, Landorus) but it's just not great. So today I'm going to just start writing up my notes on a Hail Monotype Ice Team that is either going to be decent or it's going to tell you what not to do. 

    Let's start out strong with our Hail-Setters. I have three, mostly because they all do it differently and well. The first is Alolan-Ninetales which does a few things. First it brings a resistance/coverage for Fighting types, as well as well giving us a powerful Pokemon with Snow Warning. Abomasnow is just kinda terrible, and the extra coverage of Ninetales-Alola is better than the Ice-Cream-Cone Pokemon, even if it does come at the cost of a 4x weakness to Steel. Now, Ninetales is going to be our fast support Pokemon who is going to throw up Aurora Veil and either die, or Nasty Plot her way to victory with Moonblast and Blizzard/Freeze Dry. 

    The Team

    Ninetales-Alola @ Light Clay
    Ability: Snow Warning
    EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
    Timid Nature
    IVs: 0 Atk
    - Aurora Veil
    - Blizzard
    - Moonblast
    - Nasty Plot

    The second Hail-Bringer, Ruler of Ice and the World of Falling Death-Icicles (full name won't fit :P) is ma boy Regice. Which I have no idea on whether he should be called Regi - Ice, or Reg - Ice. The first makes sense (Regi - Steel, Regi - Rock, Regi - Gigas) but the latter is correct technically based on the spelling. Right focus. So the idea behind Regice is that he's a fucking SPECIAL BOSS. He's got insane SpD (which we aren't touching), pretty good Defense, and we're going to buff him up so that his SpA is amazing. Oh and he's got the whole Icy Rock - Hail combo for simplicity's sake. So I'm running Amnesia and Charge Beam so that he can buff himself up defensively and let loose pretty decent electric attacks that boost him (most of the time) as an offensive threat. Throw in Hail and Blizzard combos for high damage, stab, boosted, 100% accurate attacks and you've got a killer combination. Also self-healing through Ice Body to kind of give him a better surivability. 

    Avalugg @ Icy Rock
    Ability: Sturdy
    EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
    Sassy Nature
    IVs: 0 Spe
    - Hail
    - Recover
    - Toxic
    - Gyro Ball

    I usually have a 1 Legendary/Ultra-Beast rule, but I'm breaking it here for what I think might be the winning combo of Z-Hail Kyurem-Black. So we start of with insane Attack, and Z-Hail (Hail with an Icium Z) means he can get a speed boost, something that Kyurem really needs to work well here. Throw in Fusion Bolt/Iron Head for a bit of coverage and Dragon Claw and Blizzard for stab and a bit of coverage, and you've got a pretty good offensive Pokemon. But, really my least favorite HailBringer so he might go if he doesn't destroy everything in his path. Might keep it just for the offense he brings as a physical threat.

    Kyurem-Black @ Icium Z
    Ability: Teravolt
    EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
    Naive Nature
    - Hail
    - Dragon Claw
    - Blizzard
    - Iron Head 

    Speaking of Physical Threats. It's Weavile. That is all.

    Weavile @ Life Orb
    Ability: Pressure
    EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
    Jolly Nature
    - Knock Off
    - Ice Shard
    - Icicle Crash
    - Fake Out

    I do have a bit of a stranger pick than Weavile, but that's only because he's basically a requirement for any Ice team as a speedy-physical threat. My other, less reliable speedier Pokemon is going to be Beartic. He's pretty much the best Pokemon that gets access to Slush Rush (with Alolan Sandlash being the only contender) and he uses it very well. Access to fairly decent coverage moves of Dark, Fighting, Water, Fairy, Ground, Normal, Rock and Ghost type attacks on top of his powerful Ice Attacks, makes Beartic an incredibly powerful attacker. Shit defense really, but good offense. I'm personally running Aqua Jet, Play Rough and Brick Break for coverage with Icicle Crash as his main attack, but there are so many options that counter some good weakneses for Ice that it's really hard to choose.

    Beartic @ Life Orb
    Ability: Slush Rush
    EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
    Adamant Nature
    - Icicle Crash
    - Play Rough
    - Brick Break
    - Aqua Jet

    The final member of my team is really just a specially offensive Pokemon to round out the team. Cryoganal was my personal choice because he's got a rather interesting move-pool, with Rapid Spin being particularly notable. Mostly it's just that it's got Freeze-Dry and Flash Cannon which is an excellent combination Water Pulse is our second coverage move, but is only useful really against Fire types since Flash Cannon is generally going to be a better option agsinst Ice and Rock.

    Glaceon @ Assault Vest
    Ability: Ice Body
    EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpA
    Quiet Nature
    - Blizzard
    - Ice Shard
    - Shadow Ball
    - Hidden Power [Ground]

    Battles:

    Fire Monotype team - Charizard (Mega-Y), Heatran, Alolan Marowak, Houndoom, Volcarona and Volcanion

    Kyurem-Black and Regice are the only two that didn't take out at least one enemy. Kyruem even got one-shotted which is totally lame. But Beartic and Weavile were really useful, I think Weavile took out like 2 enemies just by spamming Knock-Off (including a crit on Volcarona which was awesome), Beartic took out Charizard and Cryoganal took out Volcanion. Ninetales gets a pass because it did what it needed to do. Set up Hail and Aurora Veil, which saved the team early on. Wished she didn't die so early, would've been useful later on.

    Took out Charizard-Y, Alolan Marowak, Volcarona and Volcanion

    Ghost Monotype Team - Alolan Marowak, Gengar (Mega?), Mimkyu, Silvally-Ghost, Frosslas and Blacepharon

    Ninetales did her job, managed to get the first Nasty Plot up but her main source here was testing whether Blacepharon was a Choiced Pokemon, because there was really no way for me to outspeed it (or beat it) if it had the Scarf. She got Hail and Aurora Veil up as well which is excellent. I think everyone else managed to get at least one KO here. Blacepharon was taken out by Weavile, Mimkyu and Marowak were taken out by Kyurem, Frosslas was beaten by Cryoganal and Silvally fell to Beartic. Oh, I guess Regice was kinda useless yet against, didn't do anything.

    Taken out Blacepheron, Mimkyu, Alolan Marowak, Frosslas and Silvally 

    Electric Monotype Team - Togedemaru, Elektross, Xurkitree, Manectric, Tapu Koko and Vikavolt.

    Took out everything but Manectric and Tapu Koko and ended up with a forfeit from my opponent after I took out Xurkitree. Not entirely sure why but that's how it went I suppose. Anyway, everyone except Ninetales and Cryoganal did well here, but they didn't battle at all so you know. Kyurem got his hail up but was against Togedemaru who Nuzzle + Iron Headed him to death so he barely got to use it. Beartic destroyed both Togeddemaru and Elektross (with help from Regice setting up Hail and Blizzarding it once) and then Weavile took out Xurkitree and Vikavolt rather easily. Honestly didn't even notice that I took out Vikavolt and might not have. Pretty sure they had two Pokemon left but haave no idea what happened to Volt.

    So yeah, good team this time around, fought well. 

  • December 8, 2017

    Posted a second battle against a Monotype Ghost Team (well, it's the first, but it's my second battle with my team). I completely forgot both times to save the replay so I can show it off, but I'm not entirely upset that my failures are in written form only :P The team is doing fairly well but I'll be either changing Regice, or taking him to bring in a Water/Ice type (Cloister probably). 

  • December 8, 2017

    Lets go THIRD ROUND. Ooh got the Electric Monotype team, interesting, let's see how we do. They've got a decent line-up

    Togedemaru, Elektross, Tapu Koko, Manetric (Mega), Vikavolt and Xurkitree. Solid team packed with Legends

    So far I've taken out everyone but Tapu Koko and Manectric and he's forfieted right there. Weird, he probably could've taken Cryogonal, Weavile and Ninetales but they are my stronger team members. Maybe he didn't want to risk the Aurora Veil set-up sweep since he wouldn't have had any super-effective non-special moves left. Dunno, check out the REPLAY over there, and I'll add the notes in above.

  • December 8, 2017

    Changed up Regice for Cloyster (and yep, I know I've probably spelled like 12 names incorrectly so far) because man Shell Smash Cloyster with Skill Link is too great to pass up. I also just needed another Pokemon that can resist Steel and Fire a bit better because I think everyone else is weak to them.

  • December 8, 2017

    Starting another Monotype match against another Electric Team. Might get a really good set-up with Ninetales this time around.

    Opponent has Rotom-Wash, Raikou, Zapdos, Tapu Koko, Manectric and Magnezone.

    Electric Monotype Team

    Ninetales has swept Rotom and Raikou before I swapped him out. Magnezone is a bit too bulky for me to resist it. Went into Kyurem for the hail and then tried to go Beartic for Brick Break but got hit by a Z-Move Flash Cannon followed by a crit...Weavile was next and destroyed Magnezone, nearly took out Zapdos but missed the first Icicle Crash. Cryoganal took out Zapdos, but got beaten by Manectric which also finished off Ninetales and Cloyster becuase...well it's too fast and Ninetales was the only one who could've survived an attack but only had about 25% health. If I'd gotten Aurora Veil up I probably would've won with Icicle Spear + Shell Smash Cloyster, but ah well. 

    Good match, even if I lost.

  • December 8, 2017

    On a mostly unrelated note. Poison Point is the single most annoying ability that has ever been created. I mean, it definitely has a 100% chance to activate, with a 300000% chance if your playing a Nuzlocke. 

  • December 9, 2017

    Made another chance to check out the idea of an Assault Vest - Ice Body Glaceon. Testing it against a Flying team now with

    Charizard (Mega Y), Dragonite, Landorus, Pelliper, Celesteela and Togekiss. I'm probably going to lose here but who knows. So far Ninetales did her job and set up Aurora Veil, took out Landorus and ran from Celesteela before coming back in when it was weakened and taking it out. She then took out Dragonite, which isn't too hard for an Ice-type but still. Charizard is a pretty big threat because it took out my hail but fell to Beartic (he did beat Kyurem and Cryogonal). Beartic then followed up to one-shot Togekiss and I have to finish off Pelipper with either Beartic or Weavile (Ninetales fell to Pelipper...really weirded me out).

    Right, so I won another one. That's 2/5 or 2/6 isn't it? Shame I forgot to save this time. Glaceon worked way better than I thought, sadly I misjudged and Celesteela was an ATK set rather than a Special Attack set but that's fine in the end. She really is bulky. 

  • December 9, 2017

    Man, my team is destined to fight Electric Monotype Teams. Got another one running right now and my opponent has Rotom-Wash, Alolan Golem, Alolan Raichu, Electivire, Zapdos and Tapu Koko. Pretty strange choices with Golem and Electivire, but that's cool with me.

    Electric Monotype 3

    Kyurem took out Golem before falling to Tapu Koko. Weavile was taken out by Zapdos and I've followed up with Ninetales who did her thing, got up Aurora Veil and Hail before falling to Rotom-Wash. Beartic has managed to take out Rotom and Electivire, but managed to get taken out by Zapdos. Glaceon managed to take out Alolan Raichu and currently Zapdos and Tapu Koko are on 35% or less, so she might take them both out. Yep, Zapdos is gone, so it's just Tapu Koko left but it took out Glaceon. So it's all on Cryogonal who's a special defender. Yeah he didn't manage to take it out even though I got it down to 4%. Would've won if I went for HP Ground or Blizzard with Glaceon, but those are the breaks.

    5 Pokemon down is a pretty good ending in my opinion. Felt happy enough with the loss. Arguably everyone was relatively useful here, Cryogonal was just in a tough spot and Kyurem even managed to deal with something, which is rare. Might see about giving him a ground move because it would've made everything easier if anyone had one except Glaceon (who ended up Ice Sharding her way to victory. Shame that Weavile didn't survive but he surprised me with a set very similar to my Scarf Zapdos and it outsped me.

  • December 14, 2017

    My latest match is going fairly well, managed to pair of somewhat decently against the Dark Type which is only good because of Ninetales and Beartic wrecking just about everything in that typing. 

    Ah, just ended. Dark Monotype is the link and it was a relatively mediocre battle that ended with a forfeit. Kyurem did much better than I thought it would and better than he's ever done before. Glaceon was admirably passable but I only used her because of the fact that I have no other way to effectively deal with Poison types (I have Earthquake/Power on absolutely nothing) and HP Ground was just the best I had...But Blizzard was better. And of course Ninetales destroyed Greninja and Krookadile because of course it did. Gren rarely runs Gunk Shot and I think only has access to HP Steel for steel coverage, making it nearly impossible to take out a Fairy/Ice type. I assume it had Surf, Ice Beam, Dark Pulse and U-Turn but I have no real idea. Anyway, after that it was a forfeit.

     

  • December 15, 2017

    Dragon Monotype Match... I feel so ashamed, I lost to Dragons with an Ice/Hail team that even had Ninetales for the few that he had that resisted either Ice or Fairy attacks. I'd just completely forgotten that I only have two Hail Setters now and assumed that I could let Ninetales die and just swap into something else to give the Slush Rush/Ice Body boost to Beartic/Glaceon and sweep. 

    Man, I was doing so well until the very end as well. Can't believe I got swept by an unboosted. I've decided to take out Cryogonal and replace it with an Avalugg who brings more physical defence to the team, as well as the ability to 100% set up Hail unless hit by Taunt (Sturdy + Hail). Probably more of a support Pokemon, will give it Toxic and Recover for extra bulk and Gyro Ball to get some decent damage out of it (plus anti-rock support).