Unopened Christmas Gifts: NU Ice-types

Introduction

You wake up early in the morning, excited for the day ahead of you, and quickly run over to see what Papa Delibird has brought for you on this special day. Like a moth to a flame, you quickly unwrap the biggest present you can find and discover what you've always wanted in NU: Golurk, Toxic Boost Zangoose, and Regenerator Amoonguss! Satisfied with the pleasant surprise, the rest of the gifts are easily ignored and stored away, never to be seen again... or so everyone thought. Ice-type Pokemon in NU are some of the greatest overlooked gifts that the sagacious Delibird has ever delivered, as they each have their own traits that make them difficult to defeat. These Pokemon have started to pick up in usage and are highly regarded as anti-metagame, as in the cases of Regice, Piloswine, Rotom-F, and Snover. The inclusion of Snow Warning in the tier made it absolutely clear that Ice-type Pokemon were something to be feared. Whether it's Regice sponging Hydro Pumps, Piloswine setting up Stealth Rock, Rotom-F unleashing powerful Blizzards, or Snover inducing permanent hail, Ice-type Pokemon are a destructive force that have come to define the metagame.

The Ice-types

Snover

Even though Snover has pathetic stats, its Grass/Ice typing actually holds some merit in NU as it makes Snover a great check to Ludicolo, Gorebyss, and special Samurott, three powerhouses in the metagame. With access to Snow Warning and Leech Seed, it can constantly wear down opponents while recovering its own health and providing support to its teammates in the form of permanent weather. Snow Warning limits the recovery of Pokemon that rely on Synthesis, Moonlight, and Morning Sun, such as Amoonguss, Tangela, Musharna, and Solrock, while also buffing up Ice-type Pokemon with 100% accurate Blizzards and activating Ice Body. This Snow Warning support even helps Pokemon such as Sawk, because one of its best counters'—Musharna's—recovery is majorly hampered, while Duosion takes more damage from a Choice Band Earthquake and is crippled severely by Knock Off. Snover can do its job just fine with Toxic, Leech Seed, and Protect, but it has the option to use Giga Drain over Blizzard to defeat Substitute + Shell Smash Gorebyss.

Example Set

Snover @ Eviolite
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Blizzard / Giga Drain
- Protect
- Leech Seed
- Toxic

Regice

After many months of being underused due to the "Ice-type stereotype" of having too many weaknesses, many players have found out that Regice is amazing. With immense Special Defense, Regice is able to wall almost every single special attacker in the tier including Special Samurott and Rain Dance Ludicolo. Through the use of Thunder Wave, Regice can cripple faster attackers, such as Cinccino, Tauros, and Sawk, and hit them first with one of its attacks. Regice's coverage moves include Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, and even Focus Blast, which hits the majority of NU for significant damage. With a base 100 Special Attack stat, Regice is no slouch offensively; it is even capable of running an effective Rock Polish set to sweep past teams with its good power that allows it to 2HKO bulky Pokemon such as Gurdurr. Although Regice takes hits extremely well, it lacks reliable recovery outside of the means of RestTalk or Chesto Rest. Regice's main downfall is its Stealth Rock weakness, but this can be remedied by a Rapid Spinner, such as Shell Smash Torkoal; the two also have good synergy. Calm Mind users such as Musharna and Duosion can also set up on Regice pretty easily as they can recover the damage and take less as they keep gaining boosts; however, Regice can bypass this through the use of Psych Up and Frost Breath, which lets it copy the Calm Mind boosts and break through the boosts of opposing Pokemon with Frost Breath's 100% chance to land a critical hit.

Example Set

Regice @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 240 HP / 252 SpA / 16 Spe
Calm Nature
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Articuno

Articuno was always a great Pokemon in terms of its base stat total, but it has always wanted to have a usable Flying-type attack at its disposal. Thankfully for Articuno, Papa Delibird answered its wish and brought it a gift that other Flying-type Pokemon would be jealous to have, Hurricane. With Hurricane, Articuno is capable of utilizing a devastating offensive set that incorporated its great bulk, recovery in Roost, great STABs, and Pressure to destroy common cores such as Alomomola + Amoonguss and leave dents in any team that got in its way. While Snow Warning doesn't help Articuno ability-wise with the banning of Snow Cloak, Articuno gains the ability to abuse Blizzard freely, which makes it even more dangerous to face. Articuno still does well playing more defensively, as its 90/100/125 defenses, Roost, and Pressure allows it to stall teams and make a good check to various Pokemon. Articuno's access to Heal Bell also allows it to play a supportive role on more defensive teams and, alongside Roost, makes it a difficult Pokemon to take down. Even though Stealth Rock takes its toll on Articuno, Roost allows it to get health back whenever it needs it.

Example Set

Articuno @ Life Orb / Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Substitute
- Roost
- Ice Beam
- Hurricane

Piloswine

Known by many as simply 'pig', Piloswine is the only Ice-type in NU not weak to Stealth Rock and one of the most anti-metagame Pokemon that NU has to offer. With its Dream World ability Thick Fat, Piloswine no longer has a Fire-type weakness and is one of the few Pokemon to resist or be immune to the BoltBeam combination. Piloswine especially excels against offensive teams that lack the power to KO it, as it can sponge most hits with its fantastic Eviolite-boosted bulk while KOing back with excellent coverage and a high base 100 Attack stat. Although it has a low base Speed, Piloswine packs a priority attack in Ice Shard, allowing it to pick off weakened threats such as Swellow, Sawsbuck, Sawk, and Braviary. Compared to other Stealth Rock users in NU such as Golem or Regirock, Piloswine boasts an excellent Ice-type STAB and an immunity to hail's residual damage. In this hail metagame, Piloswine is an excellent switch-in to many prominent threats, but even the 'pig' has its own counters. Water-types such as Alomomola and Samurott can tank a couple of hits from Piloswine and retaliate with powerful STAB super-effective attacks. Piloswine can wear them down throughout the match with the use of the rare Toxic, but it is hard to fit it in over one of Piloswine's other important moveslots. Toxic also allows Piloswine to defeat Musharna, which would otherwise set up on Piloswine easily. In order to fit in with the hail metagame better, Piloswine can make use of Stone Edge so it can beat the likes of SubSplit Rotom-F with much more ease, while also hitting other targets such as Charizard and Articuno harder.

Example Set

Piloswine @ Eviolite
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Atk / 16 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake
- Icicle Spear

Rotom-F

Unlike most of the other Ice-types in this article, whose main viability comes from the inclusion of hail, Rotom-F has always been a very good Pokemon. Although its Ice typing led people to believe that it was inferior to the likes of Rotom-S, its fantastic STAB combo is great for pressuring the Ground-and Grass-types that tend to be the only checks to Electric-type Pokemon. Its ability to hit most of the tier for neutral damage has gained it usage with top players over the last couple of months. With the reintroduction of hail, Rotom-F now gains a perfectly accurate Blizzard and benefits from the residual damage brought upon by hail's buffeting. While Rotom-F is most commonly seen running around with a Choice Scarf set, its SubSplit set is its most effective set in hail because it appreciates the extra residual damage on the opponent caused by hail, while it can spam two powerful STAB attacks in Blizzard and Thunderbolt. Not much can check Rotom-F due to its wide coverage and powerful attacks; however, common Pokemon can tank a hit and retaliate, such as Emboar, Regice, and Stone Edge Piloswine.

Example Set

Rotom-F @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Substitute
- Pain Split
- Blizzard
- Thunderbolt

Walrein

Out of all the Ice-types in NU, Walrein is the one to benefit the most from hail because Ice Body is now active. Before hail, Walrein was mainly outclassed by Lapras as a Water/Ice-type Pokemon, but the release of Snow Warning changed everything. The classic Stallrein is back in action because it is able to stall out a complete 32 turns of a battle without any health lost. It works best with Toxic Spikes, so the opponent gets worn down over the course of the battle, but Walrein can also be used to stall out the PP of moves. Although all of this stall is great and all, Walrein is the most dependent on hail out of any of the other Ice-types because the combination of SubProtect does not work nearly as efficiently without the activation of Ice Body; Walrein fails to do much else without attempting to stall.

Example Set

Walrein @ Leftovers
Ability: Ice Body
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
- Substitute
- Protect
- Toxic
- Blizzard / Surf

Glaceon

Glaceon has always been a powerhouse, but with Snow Warning being allowed again, it can finally thrive thanks to the major buffs that it receives. Hail gives Glaceon access to a reliable Blizzard to abuse its fantastic base 130 Special Attack and Ice Body to give it 6.25% recovery alongside Leftovers. Glaceon runs a fantastic SubProtect set in the same fashion as Walrein, but exchanges the bulk for considerably more offensive prowess. Blizzard and Hidden Power Fighting hits virtually the entire tier neutrally, only missing out on uncommon Pokemon such as Lampent, Grumpig, and Frillish. While Hidden Power Fighting doesn't hit neutral targets very hard, Blizzard still deals a big chunk toresists such as Gorebyss, Samurott, and Emboar. Glaceon can also use a Choice Specs set to dish out enormous damage to anything that wants to come in, including resists and even bulky behemoths such as Lickilicky. Since Glaceon has more free slots on a Choice Specs set, it can use Frost Breath to defeat Calm Mind Duosion through its Special Defense boost thanks to Frost Breath's 100% crit chance. Sadly, most of Glaceon's usability relies on Snow Warning, and Snover's hail being negated by a Sunny Day or Rain Dance user puts a big hamper on Glaceon.

Example Set

Glaceon @ Leftovers
Ability: Ice Body
EVs: 76 HP / 252 SpA / 180 Spe
Modest Nature
- Blizzard
- Hidden Power Fighting
- Substitute
- Protect

Conclusion

In short, Ice-type Pokemon should in no way be as overlooked as those socks your grandma got you for the holidays, as they each hold a significant niche that sets them apart from the rest of the metagame. Stay off Papa Delibird's naughty list by using Ice-type Pokemon, and we wish everyone happy holidays. Smoochum wishes you a happy New Year with a big, Lovely Kiss!

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