Monotype First attempt at a competitive build. Ice monotype team (battle tested)

[OrangeManGood]

Hi All,

I finally took the plunge into competitive pokemon and decided to take my first shot at team building with an offensive ice monotype team. Everywhere i read seems to say that hail is the worst weather type, so it seemed like a good challenge. I spent some time over the last few days familiarizing myself with competitive pokemon and I think I at-least understand the basics. The idea here is to get the hail setup and either wear down or blitz through the opponent's pokemon. I've tried this on showdown and its done very well (surprisingly). i think the source of the success comes from some unpredictability in some of the setups and the variety of opening options. looking for some extra tweaks to take it to the next level. I appreciate any and all advice.

Ninetales-Alola (F) @ Light Clay
Ability: Snow Warning
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Aurora Veil
- Moonblast
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Freeze-Dry

This is basically a copy paste off the smogon suggested set. Main source of hail and protection for the rest of my team. Max speed and attack for quick aurora veil setup and decent damage output. Originally went with Blizzard, but after some thought, freeze-dry seems like a better option to help deal with waters. also good for fighting types assuming i'm fast enough to throw out a moonblast This is one of 3 possible leads for the team.

Regice @ Leftovers
Ability: Ice Body
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Protect
- Toxic
- Blizzard
- Hail

Regice is my dark horse. Its an absolute tank and just seems to absorb almost any hit. max HP and Defense to maximize overall bulk. 4 EV on speed to outspeed un-invested 50 speed pokemon (which seem fairly common). Decided on Bold over Calm nature because people usually try to hit it with a physical attack thinking it may only be a special wall. I think the defensive set catches people off guard. ice body and leftovers gives it decent recovery, which is further taken advantage of by using the toxic and protect combo. its a safe backup to get hail out since it tends to take hits very well. I routinely switch into it to preserve ninetails and manage to get alot of hail chip by stalling. chose blizzard over ice beam because i wanted to take advantage of hail and it does better at breaking substitutes. PP is low though. Havnt run out yet. Considered walrein for this spot, but Regice has much higher defensive stats, so i went with it.

Mamoswine @ Life Orb
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Stealth Rock

Second of 3 possible leads. Basic attacking / hazard setting build. Physical attacker to help with rock, steel, and fire types. also functions as a revenge killer. Jolly for best likelihood to get rocks off. I went life orb, but i'm wondering if a focus sash would be better, I tend to switch it in an out to utilize ice shard as a quick KO, so im not sure if sash would be good for that (perhaps i need to alter my play style with this one). I read knock off is super important so i threw it on there too.

Sandslash-Alola (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Slush Rush
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Icicle Crash
- Iron Head
- Rapid Spin

went with the fast sweeping set for sandslash. i usually save this guy for late game or if i really need a spin (stealth rocks hurt, but i dont run into them as often as i expected). I thought of adding a de-foger to backup sandslash, but decided against it. am i not taking hazard removal seriously enough? this pokemon works similarly to mamoswine and beats up on rock, steel, and fire types (as long as hail is up, which i try to keep almost constant).

Kyurem-Black @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Outrage
- Fusion Bolt
- Psychic
- Blizzard

Kyurem just seems like the overall best ice type so it seems like its just a gimme for mono ice. went with the mixed attacker variant. i figured it was good to have at least one pokemon that could do significant damage on the physical or special side. Thought about assault vest for some bulk, but i really like the speed with the scarf. Outrage Fusion bolt, and Blizzard seem obvious, but i threw psychic on there to help with the fighting types. mixed attacker seems a bit tricky with the nature. would appreciate advice on that here.

Articuno @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Calm Nature
- Tailwind
- Hurricane
- U-turn
- Roost

This is the slot i need the most advice with. Articuno serves as the 3rd lead option. I actually have ended up starting with it the most as everyone always assumes mamoswine or ninetails will come out first. i try to be a bit unpredictable. the goal is to use it as a bulky support pivot. I went back and fourth with the EV setup. first went with max HP and max Def for maximum bulk (like regice) but any rock attack will just kill it anyway. The additional speed is nice when attacking (z-move flying to nuke a fighting type) or trying to get a roost off, but seems wasted when im setting up tailwind. i thought to have Defog instead of tailwind, but i dont like getting rid of my own rocks. i figure since my main strategy is fast offense, tailwind will support that even further. I like to setup wind and u-turn to mamoswine or ninetails and go from there. went with calm nature to help with special bulk and maybe take an extra hit. i dont seem to use roost much (unless its late game) so maybe that should go for some ice STAB. I considered rotom frost for this bulky pivot spot. i'd likely have the same EV spread. went with articuno since it seemed to give extra support to my team's offence. rotom frost would likely stay alive longer and serve as a defoger instead. Also thought to forget the pivot and throw a beefed up walrein as basically a second regice and get some more hail stall damage.

Overall, my team seems very fast and hits hard. i added blizzard wherever i could to maximize the hail benefit. this team seems to lack a bit defensively, but ice is a bad defense type anyway so i figured id just go all out on the attacking. to make up for lack of defense i try to setup aurora veil as much as possible to help me stay alive. this strategy has worked well so far, but i feel like i could be doing more to take advantage of the hail damage. regice manages to get alot of chip, but that's about it.

Sorry if this is a bit long winded. i appreciate any insight.

 

[maroon]

Introduction
Hi OrangeManGood, this is certainly a decent attempt at a first shot making a competitive team. However, it has many less desirable sets that are just not that great. For example, Psychic Choice Scarf Kyurem-B, it doesn't even hit Fighting-types harder than Outrage does, which again is not a fantastic set. Some of these changes have been inspired by recent tournament games (Ice is still bad in Tournaments), with my own spin on them!

Major Changes
Cloyster>Articuno
>
Because Articuno is not a very great Pokemon, especially as a sweeper or Fighting check I had a different idea to what you could use to check Fighting-types. Which is where Scarf Alolan Ninetales came from, being able to pick off weakened Fighting-types with Moonblast. Then I decided to replace Articuno with a dangerous setup sweeper that the type has access to, which makes its less desirable matchups such as Fire, Rock, and Steel less painful and winnable. This Cloyster set is very hard to break behind screens and if it is setup properly it can easily sweep through Steel teams with a properly timed sweep and careful use of its z-move Hydro Vortex.

Piloswine>Regice
>
This Piloswine set serves some good for the team. It replaces Regice as the Specially Defensive wall, while also taking away Mamoswines job of attacking as an attacker and hazard setter, allowing it to use more useful coverage moves. This also can take on threats such as Volcarona with more ease. Aside from that it can also take on Heatran if its Air Balloon has been popped and overall adds value to the team, when Regice just did not because its bad. This set can also cripple Pokemon with Toxic just as Regice did as well.

Minor Changes
Alolan Ninetales

I made it this set rather than the standard Aurora Veil setter because you seemed really interested in the Fighting matchup and this is probably your best bet against Fighting teams. However, it is a tad bit weak so threats such as Mega Gallade, Terrakion, Cobalion, and Keldeo will need decent chip on them before this can revenge kill them. It has Freeze Dry to hit the tiers Ground/Water Pokemon such as Swampert, which are generally annoying for the type and some can set Stealth Rock. Finally, Encore is the last move I decided to put on this set for a simple reason, so you could punish Pokemon trying to setup, and then capitalize on it by making a switch into a Pokemon that can take care of the situation.

Mamoswine

I decided to make Mamoswine the strong Choice Band set. This is because the team truly lacked a strong physical wallbreaker after my edits which this changed. I opted to go with a Jolly nature over Adamant for one simple reason, Heatran. That is the same reason Mamoswine carries Superpower, so it can OHKO Heatran even when it has its Air Balloon, eliminating a huge threat to the type. The rest is fairly self-explanatory, it has strong stabs in Icicle Crash and Earthquake and Ice Shard can be used to revenge kill Pokemon such as Tapu Koko. I also took away Stealth Rock from it, so it can focus on being what it does best, attacking.

Alolan Sandslash

Ok this is a weird set, but is cool. Since you are Scarf Alolan Ninetales I decided you needed a cool Aurora Veil setter, which is where the tournament influence came in (niche use/still unviable in tours), so I decided to use it as the setter. I know Alolan Sandslash was originally an attacker on this team, however I made it more utility. You might be thinking why would you give Brick Break to Alolan Sandslash, well i'll tell you. Its simply to get an advantage on Fairy and Ice teams by being able to chop their screens, allowing you to break through their teams with more ease. It might take a while to get use to utility Alolan Sandslash, but I think it makes a good partner for Scarf Alolan Ninetales.

Kyurem-Black

Kyurem-B is never meant to be a Choice Scarf user, its just so weak without Life Orb. So I decided to change it to Life Orb, since again Alolan Ninetales is faster and more easily beats Dragon- and Fighting-type Pokemon that Kyurem-B does. It is the standard Kyurem-B used on pretty much every Monotype team. You can run HP Fire over Roost on the fourth slot, to make Mega Scizor less threatening while also hitting Forretress and Ferrothorn, however this makes Kyurem-B more susceptible to chip, making it less useful in a majority of matches.

Conclusion

{team can be found by clicking on the sprites above}
This is the final version of your team after I tweaked it around a bit to play more easily. Anyway, good luck with the team and hope you enjoy playing with my version of the team. If you have any questions let me know, I'm maroon on PS! and maroon#1999 on discord and wouldn't mind answering any potential questions, comments, or concerns!

 

[OrangeManGood]

Really appreciate the detailed response. i'll give these changes a go. Thank you!

 

[smub]

I agree with almost all of what maroon said, but there are a few things that could be improved:

Grudge/Foul Play>Encore on Alolan Ninetales: Encore is usually better off when relegated to the Aurora Veil set, and while the Choice Scarf set can still use it to mess with setup sweepers like +1 Volcarona and Mega Charizard X, there are definitely better options available. Grudge is a solid utility move to allow Cloyster to set up Shell Smash on choice-locked Pokemon, whereas Foul Play serves as a means of hitting Psychic types like Victini, Jirachi, and Metagross, who would switch in for free otherwise.

Another possible option could be Rock Slide over Brick Break on Alolan Sandslash in order to target +1 Volcarona, but since you already have Piloswine as a Volcarona answer, it's likely not necessary. I will say that Brick Break is nice against Fairy teams with non-Foul Play Klefki

Overall, solid rate and solid team, best of luck!