70 / 80 / 70 / 80 / 70 / 110
ICE / GHOST
LEGAL ABILITES: Cursed Body
NOTABLE MOVES: PHYSICAL: Avalanche, Ice Spinner, Icicle Crash
SPECIAL: Blizzard, Ice Beam, Shadow Ball, Hex
STATUS: Spikes, Destiny Bond, Thunder Wave, Will-O-Wisp, Taunt
PROS:
-Due to several great traits, Froslass can function as a very effective hazard lead for Hyper Offense teams.
-Access to Spikes gives it a spammable hazard that can pressure opponents even if it can't damage them directly.
-A great speed tier and access to Taunt lets it deny Defog attempts from mons like Talonflame and Altaria, as well as shut down opposing hazards from the likes of Tinkaton, Hippowdon, and Quagsire, which helps out hazard-weak offensive threats such as Cloyster, SD Weavile, and Focus Sash Polteageist, and it can also deny setup from Pokémon like Hydreigon and Salamence.
-Access to STAB Shadow Ball and usable offensive stats lets it threaten Magic Bounce Pokémon like Hatterene and Espeon who would otherwise come in for free and bounce back the Spikes.
-Its Ghost typing also allows it to deny Rapid Spin attempts from Spinners like Tsareena and Forretress, which in conjunction with it's other aspects, makes it nigh-impossible to reasonably get hazards off while it's alive.
-A wide utility movepool gives it ways to don setup opportunities to a teammate, such as Paralyzing Gengar and allowing Nasty Plot Hydreigon to force it out, when normally Gengar would force out Hydreigon with Focus Blast or Dazzling Gleam.
-Avalanche + Destiny Bond can be a deadly combo, allowing you to force damage or a kill after getting up hazards, although this means that the Magic Bouncers of the tier can have more freedom against you.
-Its ability, Cursed Body, while appears rng-fishy at first glance, can force the opponent to force the opponent to play cautiously, as they do need to attack you twice at least to KO you. For example, making a Weavile be careful about trying to 2hko you with Night Slash, as it could give a teammate like Cloyster free entry.
CONS:
-Froslass is incredibly frail, leading to even stronger non stab neutral attacks often 2hkoing it, such as Earthquake from Salamence.
-It's typing doesn't do it any favors, either, with few resistances yet many weaknesses to common attacking types, such as Dark, Ghost, Fire, and Rock.
-Furthermore, it's offenses, while not unusable, aren't great at threatening anything even slightly bulky not weak to it's STAB attacks. Shadow Ball's middling BP isn't doing it any favors.
-It can have a bit of 4 Moveslot Syndrome (for example, being able to run an Avalanche + Destiny Bond set while weakening it's matchup against Magic Bouncers, and needing to choose 1 of 2 status moves)
-Its limited amount of turns on the field means that it can't really pull any fancy tricks, for example, a Status move + Hex sounds appealing to offset Froslass' low power, but when you consider that you still need to Spike and status the opponent before you can even use your STAB move, it becomes far less appealing.
-Only having access to Spikes means that opponents who levitate/fly, like Choiced Noivern, Hydreigon, and Rotom forms aren't actually pressured at all. This leaves them free to spam their pivoting moves all day unless you relegate Rocks to a different mon.
-Forcing Froslass to taunt can be nice for Pokémon like Sandy Shocks, who can abuse that passivity with pivoting moves.
TERASTALLIZATION POTENTIAL:
Realistically, you'll never Tera Froslass. Theoretically, maybe you could Tera a certain type to lure it and fish for Cursed Body Disables for a teammate to abuse, in addition to possibly getting an extra turn to Spike thanks to a newfound resistance, but if that's your gameplan in a certain MU, then your team is seriously flawed.
EXAMPLE SET:
Suicide Lead (Froslass) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Cursed Body
Tera Type: Ghost / Fairy
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Spikes
- Taunt
- Shadow Ball
- Thunder Wave / Will-O-Wisp
This set's goal is pretty clear. Get hazards up, deny opponent's hazards, and deny opponent's hazard removal. Tera Fairy can be used to force Hydreigon to use it's coverage moves, and getting a Disable from Cursed Body on one of those can give a teammate like Azumarill free opportunity to wreck havoc. Although in theory, it could be any type you want, to force something to use a move it doesn't want to and to then give your teammates a chance to abuse the Disabling. While it's very customizable, it doesn't matter too much when, again, you won't be terastallizing. Spikes pressures opponents, Taunt shuts down removal/setup/opposing hazards, SBall pressures MBounce users as well as just letting you deal a bit of damage, TWave/WOW lets you cripple an opponent netting your mons setup opportunities.
EXAMPLE TEAM:
https://pokepast.es/e425c59159c80512
This team uses Froslass's hazards + prevention to properly enable many offensive threats. The combination of Cloyster + Azumarill overwhelms/straight up 1v1s most Water resists, like Washtom, Slowbro, and Tsareena. With the Physical walls that Gengar and Hydreigon help to force out later taking even more damage upon switchin, which is often enough for the next Water to go and clean up. Taunt on Froslass enables Cloyster to be more effective than it would've otherwise. Slowing down targets with TWave is often great for Azumarill and Hydreigon, and really things like Weavile and Noivern are appreciated by Gengar a lot.
