Beginners

Published on February 21st, 2013 | by Cassie

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Guide to HailRoom

Article image created by feathers for Nugget Bridge. View more of her artwork on her tumblr or Nugget Bridge forums thread.

What is HailRoom?

The term HailRoom refers to Pokémon teams that utilize both Hail and Trick Room. HailRoom set-up works just like normal Trick Room since you have Abomasnow’s Snow Warning ability to set up your hail automatically. HailRoom teams will be the most common type of Hail teams you see because of Abomasnow’s low base speed of 60 and the low base speeds of most of the Pokémon that benefit from Hail. Abomasnow will be doing more than changing the weather to disrupt the opponent in the HailRoom setting because in most cases it will be going first, which allows its offensive power to show. The Pokémon in HailRoom will prefer both the Hail and Trick Room environments, but to be effective they should be able to work well outside of them as well.

So Why Doesn’t Hail See Much Usage?

Hail is one of four weathers in Pokémon, with sandstorm and rain dominating the current metagame. Sun and Hail teams see about the same amount of usage; Sun because of its lack of Chlorophyll user variety, and Hail because of all of the weaknesses Ice-types have. Four of its weaknesses — Rock, Fighting, Steel, and Fire — are rampant attacking types today, so hail doesn’t see much usage. Full fledged Hail teams are a rare sight and don’t work very well, so any working Hail team will only have two or three Pokémon that favor this condition. Hail teams also need some serious team support, which is why the extra slots are mostly for coverage and Pokémon that resist their weaknesses for easy switching.

Why Stick Hail and Trick Room Together?

As stated before, Abomasnow’s Speed stat prefers Trick Room conditions, so catering to this allows Abomasnow to continue its mission after it fires off the first Blizzard. Offensively, the Ice typing is great. The issue arises when they have to move second and take a hit, which is why HailRoom is a great direction to take. HailRoom has proved to be the most reliable way of using hail teams in both the 2012 and 2013 metagames, so learning how to make and use one correctly can be beneficial — after all who doesn’t like the snow-inducing yeti?

Hail and Trick Room complement one another. While Trick Room or hail can stop other weathers or set-ups by themselves, using them together provides a rather threatening offensive team. Of course it has a few gaping weaknesses, but it’s pretty easy to work around them by switching and predicting. Hail damage to your own Pokémon isn’t fun, but your team should be prepared for this. Hail damage is great strategically since you can work your Pokémon’s spreads around this. HailRoom has its own niche in the metagame which is recognized by the use of unique Pokémon together. You might not be able to do full on HailRoom teams, but you’ll at least be able to take advantage of this environment for your own benefits.

Automatic vs Manual Hail

Hail teams that do not use Abomasnow’s Snow Warning ability to start the weather condition automatically are extremely rare and manual Hail, with the current state of the metagame, is inadvisable. You aren’t guaranteed to get Trick Room up 100% of the time and setting up both conditions just leaves you open for the opponent to take advantage of. For this reason, the sample Pokémon sets will assume you’re using Abomasnow. There are cases where you can use manual set-up if you feel you have room, but generally you’ll want to be firing off moves while you can. If you need your Hail reset it’s best to switch Abomasnow out and back in when you have the chance.

Snow Warning

So I’ve mentioned Snow Warning before, but why do you need it to be able to use HailRoom? Abomasnow is the only viable Pokémon (the only other user being Abomasnow’s pre-evolution, Snover) in the game that has access to the ability, which starts a hailstorm when it switches onto the field. Though there is no timer for how long it lasts, it is not permanent; you’ll lose hail if your opponent switches in a Pokémon with Drizzle, Drought, or Sand Stream, or manually sets up a weather with Sunny Day, Sandstorm, or Rain Dance. HailRoom teams will need Pokémon that can handle these threats so that Abomasnow can safely keep hail up, so Abomasnow generally isn’t a leading Pokémon in battle when the user feels the opposing weather inducer is slower than Abomasnow.

Getting Your Hail Going: Abomasnow

This Pokémon has been mentioned a lot throughout this article, so what kinds of sets should you use on it? The following set is my favorite, and most Abomasnow will vary a little from this set, but I’ll mention some of the other choices it has moveset and item-wise.

Abomasnow (F) @ Ice Gem
Trait: Snow Warning
EVs: 84 Atk /176 Def / 252 SAtk
Quiet Nature (+SAtk, -Spd)
– Blizzard
– Giga Drain
– Protect
– Ice Shard

First off, Ice Gem is the best choice for HailRoom because of the fact that Abomasnow will usually be in Trick Room. Since you have Ice Shard, it is easy for Abomasnow to do some serious damage with Ice Gem outside of Trick Room, too. By the time Abomasnow is out, the Pokémon with Bullet Punch or Mach Punch –Scizor and Conkeldurr being the most common, should be gone thanks to the checks you have for these threats, so Abomasnow should be able to safely fire off its Ice Gem Blizzard. While that is the preferred circumstance when using Abomasnow, it won’t always happen, so the EV spread is made so that Ice Shard will hit pretty hard with or without Ice Gem, too. Offensively, Abomasnow will OHKO 252/116 Calm Thundurus with a Gem-boosted Blizzard, which just goes to show how strong this Blizzard really is. Defensively Abomasnow can handle a Rock Slide from max Attack Tyranitar, while Dragon Claw from Jolly Garchomp would be a 3HKO. The Attack EVs allow you to 2HKO bulky Thundurus with Ice Shard (Gem included) even if it has Yache Berry. Ice Shard is important in cases where Trick Room ends due to its priority level, which means in a circumstance where you’d normally be KOed you could have the advantage. Abomasnow is great against Landorus-T, which has recently become a threat in the metagame. Since this is a Trick Room Abomasnow, Giga Drain is preferred so that it can survive longer, and Protect is basically a requirement on any non-Choice Scarf Abomasnow. Abomasnow’s Grass/Ice typing is amazing offensively, but horrible defensively, so Protect is really important to keep Abomasnow on the field. Ice Gem Abomasnow is the most dangerous set you’ll come across — even being able to do a fair amount of damage that resist, like Metagross, but it can be hard to use if you’re not conservative with Abomasnow.

While I use Ice Gem, Focus Sash is also usable on this set. If you’re not as cautious as I am with Abomasnow on the field, Focus Sash is a good option so that you’re sure you’re getting a Blizzard off before it faints. This is the most common and effective set for Trick Room, but there are also some that can make use of Sheer Cold, Light Screen, Energy Ball, Hidden Power Fire, Wood Hammer or Hidden Power Ground. Sheer Cold is usually last resort if you know you can’t KO the opponent because of the extremely low accuracy. Light Screen isn’t very common on Abomasnow because it is usually better off firing an attack, but if you can predict a Protect from the opponent it can be useful. Energy Ball is normally used on Focus Sash or Choice Scarf Abomasnow because of the fact that they want to hit as hard as possible before they faint. Hidden Power Fire and Hidden Power Ground is more common on Choice Scarf variants, but they can be used here as well if you’re afraid of ending up one-on-one with Metagross/Scizor or Heatran/Chandelure. In most cases Scizor/Metagross will KO you first with a STAB Bullet Punch or Heatran/Chandelure will KO you back with a STAB Heat Wave, so it’s better to have a partner to handle these Pokémon instead. After all, the best Abomasnow can do is 2HKO. Wood Hammer is generally used most often on Sash variants because of the fact that it is trying to hit as hard as it can before it gets taken out, but the recoil is hard to work with unless you’re okay with Abomasnow not doing much more than firing one attack off.

Trick Room

Now that you have your Abomasnow set ready to go, you need to decide on your Trick Room Pokémon. I suggest having two different Pokémon to set this up, but there are a ton of Trick Room users that can fit on HailRoom teams. I’ll give sets for the most viable ones, but you can always try others! Keep in mind that the order in which I list these has no real importance. The best Trick Room setter for your team might not even be here and the sets are really just starting points for your own HailRoom team.

Cresselia

HailRoom Cresselia won’t be doing much other than supporting. Unlike most other Trick Room setters that HailRoom can make use of, Cresselia will be taking on a more supportive role as a Trick Room setter. Its support role here is second to none, but it requires any partner Cresselia is with to be able to take advantage of this support — which means Cresselia shouldn’t be on teams with Pokémon like Prankster Sableye. You won’t worry about switching out Cresselia very often thanks to its immense bulk, so if you want an “easy mode” Trick Room, Cresselia is your go-to Pokémon. Cresselia is definitely the most reliable Trick Room setter it rarely ever gets OHKOed with the set below.

Cresselia (F) @ Mental Herb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 80 Def / 28 SAtk /144 SDef
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
– Trick Room
– Helping Hand
– Psyshock / Psychic
– Reflect

This Cresselia seems like Taunt bait right? Since this set only uses one attack, Mental Herb fits best. In most cases you won’t have to worry about getting Taunted, but it’s important to have Mental Herb just in case. This Cresselia is extremely defensive, so you don’t have to worry about switching out. Even though Cresselia won’t be doing anything back, this set will be 2HKOed by Scizor’s Bug Bite, 2-3HKOed by Tyranitar’s Crunch, and 3HKOed by Metagross’s Meteor Mash, which are important when weighing whether or not you should switch out to something that can take these hits better. The great part about having Mental Herb is that even if your opponent uses Taunt twice in a row you’ll be able to get Trick Room up while they activate the item, so you can just use Helping Hand the next turn before they Taunt again and have your partner take out the Pokémon that was using Taunt. Cresselia is great support for Abomsnow, getting rid of annoying Fighting-types, while also making it more threatening than it already is with Helping Hand. Helping Hand is great for causing massive damage (especially when it is boosting Ice Gem Blizzards…). Since HailRoom teams tend to have problems with Fighting-types, Psyshock is preferred, and the 28 Special Attack EVs allow you to 2HKO Hitmontop with either Psyshock or Psychic. The majority of Fighting-types have higher Special Defense, so Psyshock is mentioned first. If you prefer the stronger STAB in Psychic by all means, use it instead; just know that Cresselia’s role on HailRoom will usually be supporting your ice types by getting rid of Fighting-types. Reflect is great support for both Cresselia and the majority of Pokémon you’ll be using on your team. With Reflect up, Bug Bite from Scizor becomes a 4HKO, Meteor Mash from Metagross becomes a 6-7HKO, and Crunch from Tyranitar becomes a 4HKO. That should be reason enough to use it in HailRoom, since Cresselia’s partners can definitely benefit from this as well.

For HailRoom teams you’re not going to find a set much better than this because offensive Cresselia won’t be working too well here. Normally Cresselia would have Ice Beam or Icy Wind, but since you’ll have a quite a few Pokémon with much stronger Ice-type moves it’s not needed here. Grass Knot or Energy Ball could be considered, but it doesn’t net any important KOs, so Reflect is better. The majority of what Ice-types are weak to are physical attackers, so unless you’re worried about Fire-types, Reflect is usually better than Light Screen. Leftovers doesn’t work all that great here because it gets canceled out by hail damage, so if you’re worried about recovering HP you can use Chesto Berry and Rest to replenish Cresselia and continue supporting. Swagger can also be used on Cresselia as well if you want to use the popular Swagger strategy that Scott talks about in his Moves like Swagger article. Swagger still has the same objective that it does for any team it’s used on.

Reuniclus

Most HailRoom teams will appreciate Reuniclus’s offense that Cresselia just doesn’t have without Choice Specs because these teams can’t afford having many Pokémon that don’t do anything offensive. Reuniclus is a less bulky, more offensive version of Cresselia, and it won’t be doing any supporting outside of switching. Reuniclus is basically built to work on Trick Room weather teams because of its ability Magic Guard. This ability stops Reuniclus from getting damaged by anything that isn’t a direct-attack move, meaning Reuniclus is immune to damage from Hail. It’s bulky enough to tank a lot of what Abomasnow can’t handle, and even takes care of some of its threats. The spread below is made to handle these threats and still survive some really strong super effective STAB attacks.

Reuniclus (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 32 Def / 204 SAtk / 20 SDef
Quiet Nature (+SAtk, -Spd)
– Trick Room
– Psychic
– Shadow Ball / Energy Ball
– Recover

It may not look like it, but this Reuniclus can do a lot for you. The combination of Life Orb, Quiet Nature, and 204 Special Attack EVs lets you OHKO Conkeldurr, Hitmontop, and Terrakion with Psychic. This Reuniclus will OHKO Chandelure with Shadow Ball after Hail damage, or OHKO non-Rindo Gastrodon with Energy Ball. Defensively, Reuniclus can handle Chandelure’s Shadow Ball and all Crunches, except Tyranitar’s (even then it’s only a 12.5% of KO). Reuniclus will get KOed by Scizor 50% of the time, and will always be KOed by Heracross’s Megahorn. For Reuniclus’s moveset Trick Room is a given since that’s the point of using it here, and Psychic works as Reuinclus’s STAB so you’ll be 2HKOing pretty much everything that doesn’t resist. The choice between Shadow Ball and Energy Ball depends on what you feel is more of a threat: Chandelure and other Ghost/Psychic-types or Gastrodon. In most cases Shadow Ball is preferred because otherwise you won’t be hitting Ghost- and Psychic-types as hard as you’re hoping to, and because Energy Ball is weaker than Psychic when facing pretty much any Pokémon that isn’t Gastrodon. Recover works really well on Reuniclus because of the fact that once it gets Trick Room up the opponent will probably use Protect to avoid eating a Psychic and stall out Trick Room, so instead you can Recover your lost HP and become even more of a threat.

There are quite a few other choices for Reuniclus, so I’ll go through some of those here. If you’re more worried about living Crunch from Tyranitar you can use 252 HP / 52 Def / 196 SpA / 8 SpD. This spread loses out on the KO on Chandelure, and now you may get KOed by its Shadow Ball (12.5% of the time). While avoiding the KO from Tyranitar might be important, there’s not much you can do back unless you have Focus Blast, which will 3HKO in Sandstorm at best. If you’re extremely worried about all of these physical attackers, you can make a more defensive spread with a Relaxed nature, but you’ll miss out on some important KOs. Instead of Psychic you can use Psyshock, which will net a KO on Pokémon like Virizion; however, both Psychic and Psyshock have different perks, so go with what your team would appreciate more. If you’re really scared of Pokémon like Scizor, you can use Hidden Power Fire over Recover to KO Scizor and 2HKO Metagross. Reuniclus can make use of Trick as well, since Flame and Toxic Orbs don’t damage it and give it a status to block Paralysis and Sleep. If you’re not going for the more offensive set, you can definitely make use of the Orbs and Trick.

Chandelure

Chandelure may not seem to fit HailRoom teams well at first glance, but its typing provides some much needed coverage that is hard to find elsewhere. The majority of Pokémon used on Hail Room teams are weak to Fire-types, so using Chandelure’s Flash Fire ability in these situations can be a lifesaver. Thanks to its base 140 Special Attack stat it is immediately a threat on the field, which you can use to your advantage if you play Chandelure conservatively. It’s not very reliable as a Trick Room setter because of this, but in my experience if you can lead it with a Fake Out user you have the same chance of getting a Trick Room off as any other Pokémon. The fact that Pokémon can’t use Fake Out on it is great, so your set-up can’t be disrupted that way. Playing conservatively with Chandelure is key to being a successful Trick Room Pokémon. The set below is one of the best you’ll get for a “defensive” Chandelure that won’t lack offense, but it’s most definitely not the only set you can use on a HailRoom Chandelure.

Chandelure (F) @ Fire Gem
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 244 HP / 20 Def / 24 SAtk / 220 SDef
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
– Trick Room
– Protect
– Shadow Ball
– Heat Wave

While a Modest Chandelure with Focus Sash would work just fine, this set is made to handle a lot of problem Pokémon for Hail teams. With the help of Fire Gem and the Special Attack EVs, Chandelure is able to OHKO max HP Metagross and Scizor, while also OHKOing max Speed Chandelure with Shadow Ball. Defensively, Chandelure can tank Shadow Ball from opposing Chandelure, Earthquake from Jolly Garchomp, and Draco Meteor from Latios. This set works really well in Hail, because things that Chandelure can’t quite OHKO will die from Hail damage at the end of the turn. Hail teams usually have a hard time with Metagross, Chandelure, and Scizor so this Chandelure is pretty invaluable. Trick Room is an obvious choice for Chandelure since you’re using HailRoom, but because of all of Chandelure’s weaknesses, Protect is almost always a necessity. Shadow Ball works as a great STAB attack that will KO opposing Chandelure and Heat Wave is generally the preferred Fire-type move, especially when using Fire Gem.

There are quite a few other set choices for Chandelure that can work effectively, so I’ll cover what works well with HailRoom. Of course it’s a good idea to have a – Speed nature, so Quiet can work here as well. If you prefer a more offensive Chandelure you can go with the normal 252 Special Attack EVs, but it’s generally a good idea to give this Chandelure Focus Sash. While Focus Sash isn’t the greatest item for Chandelure working in Hail conditions, it’s best if you plan on leading with Chandelure and using Abomasnow in back. Offensive Chandelure shouldn’t be expected to last long, so Focus Sash tends to work best when you’re trying to get rid of threats. Ghost Gem is also a nice choice for Chandelure, and isn’t as common as Fire Gem. Ghost Gem is good for severely crippling Cresselia, if not KOing it, which Chandelure wouldn’t be able to do otherwise. Moveset wise, Chandelure can make use of Fire Gem Overheat, or even Energy Ball like Reuniclus. Substitute is usually a good idea if you feel like you’re having problems with Hitmontop, since all it can do is Sucker Punch. It’s definitely a good idea strategically, but if you can’t get Trick Room up, Substitute won’t be as useful as you want it to be. You can use Imprison Chandelure as well — it’s not nearly as good as it was in VGC ’11, but it can catch people off guard occasionally.

Slowking

Slowking is unique in this list of Trick Room setters because of how large its movepool is. Thanks to this dynamic movepool, Slowking can actually handle common threats to HailRoom teams, while also resisting them. It has enough bulk to take on a more supportive role if that’s preferred, so if offensive Slowking just isn’t cutting it you’ll have variety. Slowking benefits from having a partner with Intimidate, as the majority of HailRoom does in general, but Slowking in particular has a hard time handling any super effective physical attacks. Slowking’s Defense is lacking, so it’s important to play around Pokémon that you know threaten Slowking. Its base Special Defense of 110 and Water/Psychic-typing work great together, so coupling this with its vast movepool is enough for Slowking to be a great Trick Room setter for HailRoom. The set below is offensive, but Slowking has a decent support movepool that you can make use of as well.

Slowking (F) @ Expert Belt
Trait: Own Tempo / Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 236 SAtk / 20 SDef
Quiet Nature (+SAtk, -Spd)
– Trick Room
– Psychic
– Scald
– Fire Blast

Slowking is rather similar to Reuniclus in this set. The main reason to use Slowking over Reuniclus is for the Water typing. Since Slowking doesn’t get Magic Guard, it’s stuck with Expert Belt instead. Slowking has two equally effective abilities for this metagame: Own Tempo is more useful against Swagger, but Regenerator tends to be the better choice if you’re the kind of player to switch a lot. Slowking resists Metagross (although +2 Metagross still hurts a lot), which, as you know by now, is a pretty big threat to HailRoom teams. The EV spread is rather basic since this Slowking is a TR Sweeper, but Slowking has the Special Defense bulk to do quite a few different things. The EVs are to survive STAB Thunderbolts and Draco Meteors (without the Gem, of course), while the Special Attack EVs allows you to OHKO Occa Berry Scizor and max HP Hitmontop. You also have about a 30% chance to OHKO max HP Metagross. Scald is used for the chance to burn which is useful to Slowking as well as its teammates. The only problem is that Slowking needs to outspeed most of these Pokémon to even hit them, so proper adjustments need to be made to accommodate for this. Slowking has a 58% chance of living a Crunch from Tyranitar, but it can’t handle a Bug Bite from Scizor at all. Physical attacks destroy Slowking, so if this is a problem, you can always use Slowbro instead!

The interesting part about Slowking is its huge movepool. Depending on your needs, you can go the safer route when choosing your attacks (i.e., Flamethrower over Fire Blast for more accuracy). Surf is an interesting option if you’re using a Water Absorb partner. Obviously Blizzard is an option here too, and works great if you don’t need a Fire-type move on Slowking. Slowking also has a decent support movepool, but you’re much better off using its great coverage if you’re going to use it at all.

Jellicent

Jellicent is immune to Fake Out like Chandelure, but its bulk is subpar to Cresselia’s. Its typing makes up a lot for this, but the fact that it won’t be doing much to Pokémon that threaten HailRoom with its STABs can make it difficult to use. Jellicent is stuck between being a good Trick Room attacker and decent support Pokémon, but it works well with what it has. Jellicent doesn’t have access to the support movepool that Cresselia has, so Jellicent won’t be doing nearly as much as Cresselia when it comes to supporting, but it has its own niche it can fill on Trick Room teams. Jellicent is one of the more versatile Trick Room setters, so your opponent will have a hard time figuring out what kind you’re using, which can be used to your advantage if you’re creative. If you can conserve Jellicent, a more offensive set may fit you better, but if not the set below is one of the most reliable for setting up Trick Room.

Jellicent (F) @ Wacan Berry
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 124 HP / 184 Def / 116 SAtk / 84 SDef
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
– Trick Room
– Scald
– Shadow Ball
– Recover

This Jellicent works just like the Cresselia spread earlier, except it doesn’t have the great support movepool that Cresselia has. The main point in using Jellicent is its unique typing that resists Pokémon that Hail teams have problems with. Jellicent won’t be doing much other than 2HKOing some threats and hoping for burn status from Scald. The EV spread it uses lets Jellicent live any non-boosted attack except Crunch from Adaptability Crawdaunt, which you won’t see very often in the first place. Trick Room is the focus of this Jellicent set and Scald is the best support move Jellicent has to work with that will benefit HailRoom. Jellicent is better off dealing some damage with Scald than just using Will-o-Wisp. Shadow Ball is for coverage because it can hit other Jellicent as well as hit Psychic-types pretty hard. The spread is defensive enough to make use of Recover once Trick Room is up, but you can definitely replace these moves for your preference/team. This Jellicent won’t be netting any important KOs, so once Trick Room is up it’s pretty useless outside of cleaning up for its partner, so keep that in mind when using it.

Jellicent has a decently sized movepool compared to the rest of the Trick Room setters, so the chances that you’ll be using this exact set for your team is slim. A more offensive Jellicent will work just as well if you can work around threats, so making use of Ghost or Water Gem may be important for you to net some key KOs. Getting a Water Spout off at full HP after getting Trick Room is a pretty difficult feat, so unless you feel you can pull it off, Scald, Hydro Pump, or Surf are generally better. Hydro Pump is definitely worthwhile if you feel you want a more offensive Trick Room Jellicent, while Surf is best if you’re using it with Pokémon like Gastrodon, who will benefit from it instead of having to work around it by using Protect. Either way testing out an offensive Jellicent if this set isn’t working for you may prove to be what you’re looking for. Jellicent is one of few Pokémon that can set up hail as well as Trick Room, so if your team is in need of a manual hail starter Jellicent just might be what you’re looking for. Jellicent has access to Blizzard as well, so it can also make use of hail by being a Blizzard user itself, but in most cases this is left to Pokémon that don’t have to set up Trick Room as well. Energy Ball and Psychic are available to Jellicent, but they’re not strong enough to really put to use; Reuniclus is a superior option for these moves. Jellicent can also make use of of Mental Herb if it’s important that it gets Trick Room up. Colbur Berry is more appealing to Jellicent that don’t want to be taking serious damage from Tyranitar.

Other Trick Room Setters

If the Pokémon above aren’t working out for you there are always others to test out! Below are some that I believe will work pretty well based on their coverage or defensive abilities. Generally these would be outclassed by Cresselia or one of the others, but they have other unique qualities that you may want on your team.

Pokémon I Recommend for HailRoom

Any Ice-types you come across have immunity to Hail, but other than the Ice typing it’s important to check out the Pokémon’s ability as well. Snow Cloak and Ice Body were designed specifically for Hail. Snow Cloak is a Hail version of Sand Veil, while Ice Body works like Dry Skin in Rain. Pokémon with these abilities are interesting prospects for HailRoom teams, so be sure to check those out! Outside of Ice-types and Blizzard users I will be mentioning some other Pokémon that can be useful to HailRoom teams. Just to give you an idea of what your other Pokémon should be doing, here’s the Sableye set I use!

Sableye (F) @ Sitrus Berry
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
– Fake Out
– Will-o-Wisp
– Taunt
– Recover / Captivate

Sableye is a rather interesting complement to HailRoom teams. Why? Because it’s there to effectively annoy your opponent! As long as you can keep it alive, of course. This spread isn’t all that creative, but it’s pretty effective against rain teams. Since Sableye has access to Will-o-Wisp for physical attackers, the Careful nature and EVs were picked to handle special attacks. Sitrus Berry really helps with Sableye’s durability. Fake Out is always a great choice for Sableye, and pairing it with another Ghost-type gives you an easy way to set up Trick Room. Will-o-Wisp is great with priority, and hail teams are generally weak to strong physical attackers. Impairing these threats is Will-o-Wisp’s job, but you should be careful when using it against an opponent with a Flash Fire Pokémon or if you suspect that your opponent may be using Lum Berry. That brings me to Taunt. Most would downplay this move, but having access to a Prankster Taunt can be a lifesaver. It allows you to keep up your own Trick Room, and keeps the opponent from using Protect to stall it out. Taunt generally leaves Cresselia useless for 3 turns (unless it’s Specs Cresselia) which is really useful to HailRoom teams that don’t really have a quick answer to Cresselia. As for the last moveslot for Sableye, there are a ton of choices. I’ve picked Recover or Captivate, because they are some of the most effective. Recover is there so that you can continue annoying your opponent, and have them target Sableye while its partner blows holes into them. Captivate is a more interesting choice that you won’t get to choose often, and it works best if your Sableye is female. If you don’t have any real answer to surviving attacks from Latios, Thundurus, or Nidoking, Captivate is a great choice. Captivate lowers the Special Attack of both of your opponent’s Pokémon, but it will not have an effect on Pokémon with the same gender or a genderless Pokémon. While it’s situational, the benefits really pay off when you get the chance to use it. Sableye’s Ghost- and Dark-typing is what allows it to fit on most HailRoom teams. An immunity to Fighting-types and no weaknesses at all is appealing to teams that tend to be weak to quite a few typings.

Sableye has other options that it can take advantage of with its neat ability and vast movepool. If you’re not interested in Sitrus Berry, you should consider using Lagging Tail and the move Trick. It requires a bit of skill to make use of effectively, but stealing items from your opponent can really mess with their strategy. Sableye’s moveset usually consists of moves that get shut down by Taunt, so if you’re worried about that Mental Herb is another choice to consider. If your team has a few physical attackers that could use a bit of help, Leer is definitely something to consider. Leer hits both opponents, so using a physical attack that hits both opponents reaps the best rewards. Sableye has lots of other choices, but for HailRoom teams these are most effective for what Sableye is meant to do.

Besides Sableye, here are a few Pokémon I recommend for HailRoom teams.

Why YOU Should Use HailRoom

HailRoom and Hail have proven to be effective in the current metagame. Just check out my Nationals article, Huy’s Worlds/Regionals analyses, or Fatum’s Winter Battle team. Besides working in this metagame, HailRoom is fun to build because you get to use things you don’t see often. Much of the current metagame is full of Therian forms and rain teams, which HailRoom teams are effective against if you build it right. I’ve far from listed all the Pokémon that work well in HailRoom, so I hope you have fun looking into the other possibilities!

Special thanks to Jio for helping make the spreads in this article.

About the Author

Cassie is known for being the Pokemon supplier for a lot of Nugget Bridge users, and has just recently proved she can battle as well by making Top Cut in 2012 Nationals. Although she lost to the eventual Champion, she placed 29th overall.

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