Featured NU RMT

Team by EBeast, with commentary by Django. Art by rubs.

Snover @ Eviolite
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 248 HP / 32 Def / 220 SpD / 8 Spe
Calm Nature
- Leech Seed
- Protect
- Toxic
- Giga Drain

People are always talking about how useless Snover is, but I don't think that this is always the case. Snover's Grass/Ice typing and good Special Defense with Eviolite gives it the ability to counter prominent Pokémon such as Gorebyss, Ludicolo, and Samurott, while access to Leech Seed and Toxic allow it to wear down walls and other dangerous Pokémon such as Emboar. Between Leech Seed, Toxic, and Protect, Snover can cause a lot of chaos and force a lot of switches, further racking up damage with Stealth Rock and hail. Protect allows Snover to scout for attacks which helps to determine what my initial switch to threats such as Emboar or Sawk should be. Toxic is pretty major in particular because it's the only way that Snover can actually beat Ludicolo, as its rain-boosted Hydro Pump deals a big chunk. Giga Drain allows Snover to defeat SubSmash Gorebyss, as otherwise it would be capable of setting up on Snover's Blizzard. Even though Snover has weak stats, I'm often impressed by its special bulk that Eviolite provides, and in many situations it has made a big difference. Regardless, if my opponent doesn't have anything that Snover can deal with, it makes for a great death fodder for my team to gain back some momentum with a free switch to one of my other Pokémon.

EVs: My 248 HP EVs are set so that Snover can switch into Stealth Rock at least 4 times throughout the match while the 220 SpD gives Snover a Special Defense jump point. The 32 Def EVs allow Snover to take a Megahorn from a Life Orb Timid Samurott easier and the 8 Spe EVs allow me to outspeed opposing base 40 Speed Pokémon such as opposing Snover and Gurdurr so I can land a Toxic or Leech Seed, respectively, before I die.

Rotom-F @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Volt Switch
- Blizzard
- Thunderbolt
- Trick

Rotom-F is the face of hail and possibly the most threatening abuser the archetype has to offer. With STAB BoltBeam in the form of Thunderbolt and Blizzard, it puts the hurt onto basically anything that wants to come in. Rotom-F's main job on the team is to take down Emboar counters so that Boar can clean up, but it generally does much more than that. Thanks to the Flying-type resist I can use Rotom-F as a check to Braviary, which is especially useful against the SubBU set which Alomomola has no chance of beating. Emboar even helps Rotom-F take down Piloswine and Regice so that Rotom has more freedom to break apart everything. Alomomola's Wishes also allow it to stay alive if it gets too low on health and it doesn't have an opportunity to Pain Split. The Choice Scarf on Rotom-F helps a lot to revenge kill dangerous threats such as +2 Gorebyss and Sawsbuck. Trick also helps out if I need to cripple a defensive wall or set up sweeper such as Duosion or Musharna.

EVs: The EVs are standard with max Speed to make the most out of Rotom-F's Choice Scarf, max Special Attack to hit as hard as possible, and 4 Def EVs over HP to allow Rotom-F to switch into Stealth Rock at least 4 times.

Alomomola @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 244 Def / 16 Spe
Impish Nature
- Wish
- Protect
- Waterfall
- Toxic

I've never really been too much of an avid Alomomola user; however, I really have to say that it fits this team extremely well. Emboar is a massive threat to hail teams everywhere and Alomomola is the one Pokémon that handles it best. Not only does it beat Emboar, but quite a large portion of physical attackers in the tier. Wish is amazing for this team as it allows Snover to stay alive longer and keep setting the weather while also healing the rest of my team so they can keep going on the offense. Wish + Skuntank keeps my team pretty safe from Duosion or Musharna that like to set up on Alomomola as well. Regenerator + Wish is a fantastic combination on Alomomola as it rarely has to actually stay in to accept its own Wish, preventing it from taking away my momentum as much as other Wish users would. Toxic is Alomomola main form of damage, but honestly on a Hail team it's enough as Stealth Rock coupled with Toxic and Hail Damage wears down most opponents pretty quickly. Residual damage from Hail and possibly Toxic also makes it harder for opponents to set up on Alomomola. While the residual damage from Hail also affects Alomo, Regenerator will usually be more than enough to make up for it.

EVs: 248 HP decreases the damage taken from Stealth Rock, while 16 Speed allows Alomomola to outspeed standard Golurk. The extra Speed allows me to hit Golurk with Waterfall or Wish before it can touch me.

Skuntank @ Black Sludge
Ability: Aftermath
EVs: 20 HP / 248 Atk / 240 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Taunt
- Pursuit
- Poison Jab

Skuntank is my team's best answer to annoying Pokémon such as Haunter, Gardevoir, Musharna, and Duosion, while providing general utility in the form of Taunt. Skuntank's Poison-typing also helps with absorbing Toxic Spikes, which could be a major problem for this team if it weren't for Skunk. Sucker Punch is excellent priority that allows me to pick off dangerous Pokémon such as Cinccino and Swellow when they are at low health as well as giving me a stronger weapon against Psychic-type Pokémon than a switch-less Pursuit. Between Taunt, Sucker Punch, and Pursuit, Psychic- and Ghost-type Pokémon are hard-pressed to beat Skuntank, and having them gone makes it easier for Emboar to start spamming its attacks. Poison Jab allows Skuntank to hit Gurdurr, Sawk, and Emboar on the switch and is Skuntank's most reliably STAB attack. Aftermath is always helpful if you need a last minute stop to a weakened sweeper. Sucker Punch + Aftermath + hail damage takes massive chunks on a rampaging sweeper, which cuts their attack short.

EVs: 20 HP gives Skuntank a Leftovers number, while 240 Speed allows my Skunk to outspeed opposing Skuntank using the standard 236 Speed spread.

Emboar @ Leftovers
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Substitute
- Fire Blast
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power Electric

Revamped from my older version of the team, Special Emboar is one of the Pokémon gaining in popularity due to its ability to destroy most hail teams—and teams in general—thanks to its great STABs and Ice-type resist. The main special walls in NU, Lickilicky and Regice, are weak to Emboar's STABs, making Emboar very hard to switch into. The Substitute set in particular makes a fantastic lure for Alomomola and takes advantage of the many switches that Emboar forces. As Scarf Rotom-F is not capable of threatening Alomomola + Amoonguss on its own with its Choice Scarf, Emboar takes its place. Fire Blast and Focus Blast are STABs that destroy a large portion of the metagame on its own and Hidden Power Electric is for Water-type Pokémon. HP Electric was chosen over HP Grass due to the ability to hit Mantine, whose Rain Dance set can cancel out the hail and destroy my team from there with its fantastic Water + Flying STAB coverage. Timid Emboar outspeeds standard Mantine, which means it can take advantage of Mantine's false security to strike before Mantine can even do anything. Against more defensive Mantine variants, a combination of Stealth Rock, STAB, and Hidden Power Electric is enough to take it down however these don't pose as much of a threat as Rain Dance does.

EVs: Like Rotom-F, the EVs chosen for Emboar are pretty standard for a special attacker. The main thing to note is that max Speed with a Timid nature allows Emboar to outspeed Adamant Absol.

Golurk @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 72 HP / 252 Atk / 184 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Shadow Punch
- Ice Punch

Golurk is the final member of my team and provides a lot of useful resistances and access to Stealth Rock. Golurk's Ground/Ghost provides a ton of useful resistances such as Fighting and Rock, which are capable of completely demolishing hail teams if left unchecked. Golurk also gives me another check to Sawk, Duosion, and Pinsir, who all threaten my team, while providing a use Rock-type resist that helps against Golem and Regirock. Golurk's bulk is good enough that it can avoid getting OHKOed by Skuntank's Sucker Punch and proceed to take it down with an Earthquake. Even if that situation comes, thanks to Alomomola's Wish it is possible to get Golurk back up to full if I play it correctly. Golurk being my choice as a Stealth Rock user is pretty beneficial, as Sawk is able to take out most of the other Stealth Rock setters with Close Combat. In fact Golurk makes for a pretty great long-lasting check to Sawk, as it's immune to Sawk's STAB Close Combat and Alomomola provides it with a constant supply of health via Wish. Golurk also makes a great check to Garbodor, whose Spikes are a huge pain to deal with on this team even with Wish support.

EVs: Max Attack allows Golurk to pack a punch while 184 Spe EVs allows it to outspeed Alomomola, opposing Golurk, and Garbodor. The added bulk allows Golurk to make use of its great typing and 72 HP EVs give Golurk a Leftovers number.

Introduction

Due to the recent unbanning of Snow Warning in UU, Snover was briefly allowed into the NU metagame. This unexpected shift certainly shook things up, with many Pokémon gaining new niches, new sets being discovered, and entirely new playstyles being developed. EBeast created one of the most successful and well-balanced examples of an NU hail team, and here we take a look at how Snover and other Pokémon on his team went about shaping the metagame. Don't go getting any ideas about using this team, however; Snover has already moved on to RU, gaining enough usage there to move up a tier.

The Team

As previously mentioned, this is a hail team, and as such, the first Pokémon thought about when teambuilding is often Snover. EBeast makes use of the popular Specially Defensive Snover set, which allows it to act as a very effective counter to powerful Water-types such as Ludicolo and Gorebyss, as well as checking Samurott. While during a game it often won't do much outside of setting hail and then serving as death fodder, its role is absolutely crucial and without it this team wouldn't be anywhere near as effective.

Hail teams famously had huge amounts of trouble with Emboar, among other physical attackers such as Sawk, so an Alomomola is a fine choice for hail to combat these threats. It also provides Wish support to the rest of the team, which can be absolutely vital in keeping Snover, as well as its teammates, alive. The other huge threats to hail teams are Psychic-types, primarily Gardevoir and Duosion. EBeast uses a Skuntank to deal with these, which also comes with the added bonus of absorbing Toxic Spikes. By focusing on the threats that commonly beat hail teams, and ensuring he has solid counters to those, EBeast makes his hail team very hard to break down and defeat. Golurk reinforces this, providing an immunity to the dangerous Fighting-types, as well as extra insurance against Psychic-types, which it can easily OHKO or 2HKO. It also gives the team Stealth Rock, vital on almost every team. This defensive backbone of Skuntank, Alomomola, and Golurk easily wears down the opposing team, especially with hail negating all Leftovers recovery, which makes Stealth Rock that much more dangerous.

The last two slots on EBeast's team are dedicated to offense, and between Emboar and Rotom-F, he has a powerful and dangerous offensive core. Emboar is the typical wallbreaker, but it uses a new set which became popular during the hail metagame, SubSpecial Emboar. This set was actually designed to beat opposing hail teams, because of the ease with which it sets up on Snover, but it is still fantastic against other team types. Nearly nothing can stand up to this set (bar niche counters like Altaria) as common special walls are weak to either one of Emboar's STAB moves, while certain Pokémon that would usually check Emboar such as Mantine are easily dealt with by Hidden Power Electric. It also acts as a fantastic Alomomola lure, being able to 2HKO it with Hidden Power Electric. Finally we come to Rotom-F, probably the Pokémon who gained the most popularity from Snover being in the tier. Perfect accuracy Blizzard gives it a great niche over its counterpart Rotom-S, and when combined with STAB Thunderbolt, there is very little that can stand up to it. Rotom-F normally bides its time until the opposing team is appropriately weakened by Emboar and the defensive core with hail, then sweeping with whichever STAB move is the better option.

This is a great example of a balanced hail team, having a solid defensive core and then powerful offensive Pokémon to clean up the opposing team once they have been significantly weakened. By ensuring he has counters to all the Pokémon that were being hyped as counters to hail teams, EBeast effectively creates an anti-metagame team, and it is easy to see why many people were unable to beat it.

Threats

Just like every team, there are always weak spots. Stealth Rock in particular can be an issue, with both Snover and Rotom-F being significantly limited by its presence; EBeast has no way of removing it and not many effective ways to prevent it from coming onto the field. It can be played around with Alomomola and Wish, but it makes the game much more difficult. Changing the weather is another effective way to shut EBeast's team down, and Mantine in particular is a threat as it can easily break through Snover. Swanna does a similar job, so it is essential that these Pokémon are given no opportunity to set up. Finally, Glaceon with Substitute and Protect can be a real pain to take down if it gets a Substitute up, so this should also be avoided as much as possible.

Conclusion

For the brief time that Snover was NU, this was a great example of a model hail team. However, Snover—and some other Pokémon such as Emboar—are now RU, meaning NU has taken on a new shape. This new metagame is just as fun though, so you should all come along and try it out; you won't be disappointed.

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