QC: Carbonific / Jio
GP: GatoDelFuego
[OVERVIEW]
* Being the only fully evolved Pokemon in the entire game to get both Aurora Veil and Snow Warning gives Alolan Ninetales a well-defined niche in the metagame, being able to use what is effectively dual screens with a single moveslot.
* Access to Freeze-Dry enables it to disrupt rain teams by threatening an OHKO on Pelipper, while also enabling it to handle threats like Gyarados and Gastrodon.
* Access to support options such as Encore and Icy Wind allows Ninetales to disrupt opposing Pokemon and provide speed control, respectively.
* Furthermore, thanks to its 109 base Speed, Alolan Ninetales is a huge thorn in the side of Garchomp and Salamence, being able to outspeed them and threaten OHKOs with its Ice-type STAB moves.
* While it is a huge threat to a lot of common metagame threats, it is also very threatened by a lot of common Pokemon, such as Celesteela and Alolan Marowak.
* Poor physical bulk and only decent special bulk make it hard for Alolan Ninetales to switch in, while its mediocre Special Attack means it can't do much to anything it doesn't hit for super effective damage.
[SET]
name: Aurora Veil
move 1: Aurora Veil
move 2: Freeze-Dry
move 3: Blizzard / Icy Wind / Encore
move 4: Protect
item: Focus Sash / Light Clay
ability: Snow Warning
nature: Timid
evs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========
* Aurora Veil functions as an all-in-one Reflect and Light Screen, reducing the damage Alolan Ninetales and its teammates take from attacks for five turns, or eight turns with Light Clay.
* Freeze-Dry hits a plethora of threats, such as Gyarados, Pelipper, Gastrodon, Garchomp, and Salamence for 4x damage, the former three of which would otherwise take on Alolan Ninetales quite easily.
* Protect grants Alolan Ninetales a turn of protection, allowing it to be safe for a turn as its partner handles threats to it, such as Celesteela, Alolan Marowak, and Kartana.
* Blizzard gives Alolan Ninetales a spread move that also functions as a more powerful attacking move than Freeze-Dry, which can be useful against neutral targets; for example, while Freeze-Dry never OHKOes Kartana, Blizzard has a 43.8% chance to OHKO non-Assault Vest Kartana.
* Icy Wind enables Alolan Ninetales to provide its team with speed control.
* Encore is a great tool for disrupting the opponent's strategy; for example, it enables Alolan Ninetales to lock the otherwise-threatening Celesteela into Substitute, or to lock almost any Pokemon slower than it into Protect.
* Dropping Protect is an option if you want Alolan Ninetales to have two of Blizzard, Icy Wind, and Encore, as opposed to just one, or just have another move in general; Moonblast, for example.
Set Details
========
* Maximum investment in Special Attack and Speed with a Timid nature is necessary to ensure Alolan Ninetales's attack(s) hit harder than a wet tissue and to Speed tie with Kartana, respectively.
* Focus Sash enables Alolan Ninetales to survive an attack that would have otherwise taken it out, while Light Clay extends the duration of Aurora Veil to eight turns.
* Icy Rock is an option if you have Alolan Sandslash on your team, extending the number of turns Alolan Sandslash has available to take advantage of Slush Rush.
* Snow Warning is necessary to ensure Aurora Veil succeeds, as the move requires hail to be active in order to be used.
Usage Tips
========
* You should generally avoid directly switching Alolan Ninetales in on an attack, as its mediocre bulk doesn't allow for it to take many hits if Aurora Veil isn't up.
* Alolan Ninetales doesn't necessarily have to go for Aurora Veil turn one; for example, when facing Pokemon such as Pelipper or Gyarados, it is much better to go for the OHKO with Freeze-Dry so as to get these threats out of the way as soon as possible.
* If you see Torkoal or another non-rain weather setter on the opposing Pokemon's team, don't bring Alolan Ninetales; due to Alolan Ninetales's Speed, its weather will be erased by any slower opposing weather setter, while Alolan Ninetales struggles to do any damage back to them, making it a sitting duck.
Team Options
========
* Tapu Lele protects Alolan Ninetales from priority attacks; this is especially handy if it carries a Focus Sash, as this will prevent its Focus Sash from being broken by Fake Out.
* Tapu Bulu also makes for a good teammate as Grassy Terrain will negate hail damage done to Alolan Ninetales's grounded allies; however, it also negates hail damage done to its grounded opponents.
* As the best user of Slush Rush, Alolan Sandslash makes for another good teammate for Alolan Ninetales.
* Due to its vulnerability to Steel-types like Celesteela and Kartana, Fire-type Pokemon like Arcanine and Alolan Marowak make for great partners.
* Water-types like Gastrodon, Gyarados, Milotic, and Araquanid massively help Alolan Ninetales against opposing Fire-types. Gastrodon is a particularly noteworthy team option here as it can assist Alolan Ninetales against Alolan Muk as well as Fire-types.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
* Moonblast or Dazzling Gleam provide Alolan Ninetales with a way to hit Dark- and Fighting-types super effectively.
* Hidden Power Fire enables Ninetales to secure an OHKO on non-Assault Vest Kartana.
* Hypnosis gives Ninetales an option to put opposing Pokemon to sleep, but its 60% accuracy makes it an all-around poor option.
* Disable allows Alolan Ninetales to temporarily block an opposing Pokemon from using a move like Protect, as well as allowing it to disable an attack like Celesteela's Heavy Slam.
Checks and Counters
===================
**Steel-type Pokemon**: Not only do Steel-types not fear Alolan Ninetales's attacks at all, they also have 4x super effective STAB to use against it. As such, Pokemon such as Celesteela, Metagross, and Kartana grab OHKOs on Alolan Ninetales through Aurora Veil, while all of these Pokemon except for Kartana take virtually nothing from Alolan Ninetales.
**Fire-type Pokemon**: By virtue of resisting Alolan Ninetales's STAB attacks, Torkoal, Alolan Marowak, and Arcanine can take a hit from Alolan Ninetales and threaten it out with their Fire-type attacks. Furthermore, thanks to Drought, Torkoal can come in to prevent Alolan Ninetales from setting up Aurora Veil.
**Poison-type Pokemon**: Despite not resisting Alolan Ninetales's Ice-type attacks, Alolan Muk's Special bulk in conjunction with the combination of Gluttony and Figy Berry means that it cares very little about Alolan Ninetales's attacks, enabling it to easily threaten it with Poison Jab or Gunk Shot. Nihilego's special bulk enables it to take anything from Alolan Ninetales and OHKO it with Sludge Bomb.
**Trick Room**: Alolan Ninetales's great Speed tier turns into a liability should Trick Room be active. Trick Room will prevent Alolan Ninetales from ever going first, meaning Alolan Ninetales has no options against Trick Room other than to use Protect in an effort to burn a Trick Room turn.
**Opposing Weather**: Although Pelipper doesn't want to take Freeze-Dry, it and all of the other weather Pokemon give Alolan Ninetales a hard time on account of preventing Aurora Veil from going up, as Alolan Ninetales is so fast that any other weather setter's weather will go up instead. Furthermore, Alolan Ninetales has no way of damaging any of them except for Pelipper and Politoed.
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