Molk's Posse
Credit to JhenMohran for the Banner
One night, I decided I wanted to make a new RU team. I went on to the Rarely Used channel and asked if anyone wanted to help me build a team. The only people who were active that night were Molk and Silvershadow234. I told them that I wanted to use hail, and more specifically hail offense. I knew hail stall was broken, but I wanted to be slightly different, and still use something strong.
First and foremost, Molk suggested basically every Pokemon on the team, and Silvershadow helped with the original movesets and also made some synergy suggestions. I cannot remember all the details other then that they were the only people helping me. Before I went to sleep that night I remember trying the team and destroying the ladder. I told Molk that I was going to peak #1 with this team and post an RMT, and call the RMT, "Molk's Posse." Honestly, I was really bad at RU. I think the fact that I managed to peak #1 in a tier I didn't know (during the most competitive ladder period) proves how broken hail truly was. Also, if anyone cares, proof is here, and without further delay, here's the team!
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Nana (Snover) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 248 SAtk / 248 HP / 12 Spd
Modest Nature
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Blizzard
- GrassWhistle
- Giga Drain
Snover is the most important member of the team, and if you think that Snover's only purpose on a hail team is putting up hail you are just wrong. There was never a reason to run anything besides a Focus Sash. Snover is too slow to run a Choice Scarf, and too frail to run Eviolite. Hidden Power [Fire] takes out huge threats like Ferroseed and Escavalier, and after a lot of testing I decided that it was better than both Hidden Power [Rock] and [Ground]. Blizzard is extremely important, it takes out Aerodactyl, and pretty much every other flying type lead. Giga Drain hits bulky waters like Lanturn and Alomomola. Finally, I run Grass Whistle, and despite its 55% accuracy it wins so many battles. I manage to kill other Snovers with my slight speed creep, and then hopefully I sleep their first wall. Fortunately, they usually set up a hazard first, and give me two chances to Grasswhistle. In addition, sometimes I Grasswhistle other Snovers turn 1, and keep my sash in tact for later. Furthermore, Grasswhistle lets me put things to sleep like Moltres and Typhlosion, which can otherwise do serious damage to my team.
The spread is fairly standard. Max special attack so Snover can actually do something, and the speed creep is beyond important for taking out other Snovers. No other speed is needed for anything, so I throw the rest of the EVs into HP.
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Rainbow Dash (Glaceon) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Ice Body
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Blizzard
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power [Rock]
- Frost Breath
Glaceon was an extremely popular staple to hail offense teams for good reason. First and foremost, every good hail offense team needed two legitimate blizzard spammers, and Glaceon is the first of my two. I wanted to run a team as offensive as possible for hail, and thus, decided between Choice Specs and Choice Scarf. I randomly chose Choice Scarf, and decided Glaceon would be my revenge killer, and I never looked back. Of course, it lacked the sheer power of Choice Specs, but I had my eye on other pokemon to help me defeat hail stall, and I needed a pokemon to revenge kill pokemon on weatherless teams.
Blizzard and Shadow Ball are the two staple moves, and some may argue that Hidden Power [Rock] is as well. However, I toyed with this move quite a bit, switching it between Glaceon and Snover, different typing as well, and eventually settled down with [Rock]. Hidden Power [Ground] was nice to hit Emboar, but I really wanted Rock to at least dent Cryogonal and OHKO Moltres. Finally, I never found any use out of Baton Pass, so I used Frost Breath to hit things like Sunny Day Amoonguss, which tried to get rid of my hail.
The EVs are extremely standard. Max special attack, and max speed to kill and out speed as many things as possible. Ice Body helped me step on rocks, and gave Glaceon a lot more survivability then she otherwise should have had.
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Frosty (Rotom-Frost) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Blizzard
- Thunderbolt
- Pain Split
- Substitute
Rotom-F is the second of my two Blizzard spammers. I knew that the biggest reason why hail offense was not as popular as hail stall was because hail stall beat hail offense 9/10 times. Rotom-F is the absolute best check to Hail Stall for Blizzard Spam teams besides possibly trick scarf lovely kiss Jynx, that did not fit on my team, and especially not with Grasswhistle on Snover. Rotom-F was able to hinder Walrein in 1v1, completely destroy Alomomola, do serious damage to Steelix, and set up on Roselia. If I was able to take out Clefable, Rotom-F typically had a very easy time finishing off stall, in addition, it loved coming in on Sigilyph and having the freedom to fire off either stab for super effective damage.
Substitute + Pain Split was absolutely necessary. I never saw Volt Switch as even a reasonable option because I needed both of these moves to help me with stall. Substitute helped me annoy hail walls like Walrein and Dewgong. Furthermore, Pain Split let me take my health back on things like Clefable.
The EVs are very standard. I wanted maximum speed to be faster than other Rotom-Fs and I needed maximum special attack to do as much damage as possible to enemy walls. It is very important that Rotom-F had Levitate because its Toxic Spike immunity helped it further check stall teams, and it was a needed resistance to attacks like banded Druddigon Earthquake.
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Crusader (Golurk) @ Leftovers / Yache Berry
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 156 HP / 244 Atk / 108 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Shadow Punch
- Earthquake
- Fire Punch
- Stealth Rock
Golurk is effectively the glue to my team. I needed to start plugging in some counters to typical hail offense checks, and I needed something to lay down rocks. Golurk did both. Not only did it counter Hitmonlee, who I hated at the time because it could Fake Out and kill everything with Close Combat, but it was strong enough to land surprise kills on things like Amoonguss switching in, Rotom-C, Cryogonal, Qwilfish with the intimidate, and Druddigon with some previous damage.
Fire Punch is necessary for hitting bug and grass types hard, I never liked Dynamic Punch and No Guard because the power behind Iron Fist and Fire Punch was too important for my team. 108 Speed creeps me past other Golurks, and minimum speed Lanturns, which can otherwise be extremely annoying for my team. Shadow Punch offers great secondary stab with Earthquake and hits Pokemon like Sigilyph hard.
The rest of the EVs are thrown into HP and attack. Golurk is crucial for beating a lot of teams because it spin blocks. In addition, I needed something for Aggron. Finally, Yache Berry is a legitimate option for obliterating Cryogonal, however, with recoil from Hail, and the ability to beat stall with my other Pokemon, I almost always ran Leftovers.
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Bloat (Qwilfish) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 236 Def / 252 HP / 20 Spd
Impish Nature
- Thunder Wave
- Spikes
- Waterfall
- Pain Split
Qwilfish is Golurk's key partner. I needed something with intimidate to stop things like Escavalier and Durant from running me over. Specifically Scarf Durant because with prediction it killed my entire time. I also needed a fire resist, mainly for Scarf Emboar and Band Entei, and something to pick up Toxic Spikes because I did not have a spinner.
Similar to Golurk Qwilfish had a huge niche on my team. He checked physical attackers, set up hazards, crippled sweepers with Thunder Wave, and repeated. It was also another key fighting resist to stop pokemon like Bulk Up Hitmonchan from running right through me.
I toyed with this set a lot, I tried Haze, Toxic Spikes, Destiny Bond, eventually I settled with Thunder Wave and Pain Split, Spikes and Waterfall were always a staple.
Toxic Spikes were not good enough because Roselia was really popular on stall, as was Drapion. In addition, Cryogonal just floated over the toxic spikes, and if I was not running Yache Berry on Golurk I pretty much could not stop it from spinning away my hazards. Thunder Wave helped me slow down Cryogonal that wanted to come in and spin, so I could then kill it with Golurk or my last physical attacker. It also annoyed things like Absol, Substitute Bouffalant, Kabutops, Life Orb Lilligant, Uxie, and even Slowking.
The set is extremely standard. I creeped an extra 4 speed to be able to beat other Qwilfish. The initial 16 speed EVs is to outpace Bouffalant and Golurk. Maximum Defensive bulk is necessary to get full use out of Qwilfish, stab Waterfall does enough to what it needs to hit.
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Mace Knight (Escavalier) @ Choice Band
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 128 Spd / 252 Atk / 126 HP
Adamant Nature
- Megahorn
- Iron Head
- Pursuit
- Sleep Talk
Escavalier is probably the only Pokemon on my team that is not running a completely standard set, and it is for very good reason. I needed something to just smash stall Pokemon as hard as possible, and I needed a sleep talking Pokemon. I also needed something that could at least do something to Lanturn, even if it was not much. In addition, Escavalier got to use Overcoat, which is a really cool ability that lets me not take damage from hail.
Megahorn and Iron Head are obvious moves, I went with Pursuit over Return to get guaranteed kills on Pokemon like Slowking and Uxie that were going to try and switch out. Sleep Talk as mentioned is for taking sleep from things like Amoonguss, Lilligant, Tangrowth, and Smeargle.
Adamant Nature is necessary to hit things as hard as possible, this thing can OHKO Pokemon like Druddigon from maximum HP, as well as Tangrowth and almost Entei with Stealth Rocks down. Finally, I ran 128 Speed to creep past other creeping Escavalier, and more importantly to kill Spiritomb before it could burn me, and catch Slowking off guard after switching in on a Psyshock.
135 base attack is absolutely no joke, and even though Escavalier was the last Pokemon added to my team it is really important for hurting enemy teams after I had removed their Pokemon with fire-type moves.
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Well that concludes my team. I was able to peak #1 with this as I already said, and passed people like Pocket, Texas, Molk, August, and Ciele, who were all ranked inside the top 15 at the time. The team definitely has its flaws. For one, Hazard Stacking can obliterate me, and Smeargle is able to get up some hazards if I get unlucky and Sleep Talk a Pursuit on Escavalier. Moltres and Magmortar usually have no problem running through me unless I get lucky and catch them off guard with Hidden Power [Rock] from Glaceon. Finally, Fraxure is able to set up on Qwilfish, and outspeed my entire team with a Dragon Dance. However, I never worried too much about it because it was rarely ever used during the hail meta. Oh yeah, offensive Cryogonal with Hidden Power [Fire] was a complete jerk.
Importable
Here is a sample battle I found from the RU Open Round #1
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/uu-44847341
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