Current Discussion Topics: Why NU Hail Stall strategies in OU (kinda) work, Using a Cloyster in a way it was never meant to be used, and Smooth Jazz.
And more!
Since I haven't posted here since the Mollux CAP discussion, and have only been sporadically on Showdown within the past 2-3 weeks, I figure a re-introduction of sorts is in order. I'm Ataraxia, formerly Elite Four Lorelei, formerly Okuu, one of the somewhat-older staff members of Showdown. Unofficially, I'm the moderator-moderator of Showdown(If you've got problems with another staff member, or need spammers muted, or just need another moderator in chat, I'm one of the people to go to). I also mess around a bit on OU, tending to avoid common meta strategies and instead make stupid teams to teach ladder players about threats that they would never consider. I've also been mostly missing from Showdown for the past 9 or so months, and will probably continue to be largely not-present for months to come. However, in the free time I've managed to scrounge together, I came up with a fun challenge for myself:
200 battles, all in OU Current, with this team:
That's right, Mono-Ice in OU Current (as in, not OU Monotype). For many people, running into this team was a joyous occasion. Some people enjoyed the unique sorts of challenges this team brought. I mean, what better to break up the monotony of Steel types and top thirty OU choices than a Mono-Ice team featuring Pokemon from NU / UU / BL? Other people enjoyed the basically-free win that they thought they were guaranteed by facing against a team full of the worst defensive typing (Ice) in the game. And a few more people just liked seeing a Showdown! staff member in 'action'. Whatever the reasons were, fun was had by many.
Team in detail:
Froslass (F) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Cursed Body
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Jolly Nature
- Ice Shard / Icy Wind (With Timid Nature and maxed SpAtk in lieu of Atk)
- Spikes
- Taunt
- Destiny Bond
Teambuilder was a continuous friend and valuable resource for me. I constantly tweaked multiple aspects of my team. Sometimes to react to common threats, and sometimes just to see if different ideas worked better. Though I kept the same 6 Pokemon the entire time, I would alter things like their stats and moves to aid my quest to (what I hoped would be) 200 straight victories. That said, Froslass was one of the Pokemon that I rarely made changes to. It was my dedicated lead, and Spikes/Taunt/Destiny Bond didn't leave it for a moment.
For my first 105 battles, it was amazing at predictive counterplay: constantly ruining the opponent's set-ups, forcing switches, and sacrificing itself to kill whatever happened to attack it (be it weather starters or set-up-mons or priority sweepers who didn't know how Destiny Bond works). Interestingly, at that point, Froslass was officially moved out of UU into BL. This led to many more people knowing about it, understanding how it works, and learning how to play against it. Coincidentally, my success rate with it plummeted. Still, it presented itself as a fantastic threat, and Mono-Ice doesn't have many Pokemon as good as preventing opponents from setting up hazards as Froslass.
My only real debate when it came to changing things was Ice Shard versus Icy Wind. All in all, I liked Ice Shard better: it generally 2HKO'd Aerodactyl, annihilated any Ninjasks, and could net some decent damage against dragons if I somehow didn't get to Destiny Bond with it earlier. Icy Wind did get a decent application in crippling a Tyranitar, but the fact that it has a 90% hit rate ultimately pushed me away from it.
Also, it's still hilarious whenever anyone attempts to Fake Out / Mach Punch / other fighting move against Froslass. Free set-up turn!
Abomasnow @ Leftovers / Choice Scarf
Trait: Snow Warning
EVs: 172 HP / 252 Atk / 84 Spd (varying with other movesets / items)
Adamant Nature
- Ice Shard / Blizzard (with Modest nature and max'd SpAtk in lieu of Atk)
- Earthquake / Brick Break
- Protect / Wood Hammer / HP Fire (with Modest nature and max'd SpAtk in lieu of Atk)
- Leech Seed / Giga Drain (with Modest nature and max'd SpAtk in lieu of Atk)
Hail is one of those things that's almost unanimously understood to be underpowered. With Snow Cloak banned, it only serves to minorly annoy any Pokemon that isn't an Ice type, to trigger the Ice Body ability of 4 pokemon that loiter around the NU/UU regions of the metagame, and to maximize Blizzard's accuracy. It offers no defensive benefits, no offensive benefits, and doesn't assist your typical multi-type team in any way/shape/form. Even the Pokemon that insta-Hail is attached to is generally understood as underpowered.
Fortunately, for Abomasnow, it features a diverse enough movepool to end up suffering a major case of 4-moveslot syndrome. Depending on what you want it to do, it can stall, it can tank, or it can surprise a hapless switch-in. For the majority of my battles, I stuck with Ice Shard / EQ / Protect / Leech Seed. It led to Abomasnow becoming a fairly useful scout, surprise Garchomp killer, surprise Heatran-switchin killer, and a nice way to force an incoming Tyranitar to switch right back out (getting Seeded). It still ended up dying just about as often as Froslass did, but it could put a solid dent in an opponent, and it usually ended up winning the weather war. Whether that weather war was won with my team composition, my "skill" as a trainer, or the opponent's lack of caring about Hail in general, I have yet to find out.
Cloyster @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Skill Link
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Jolly Nature
- Icicle Spear
- Rock Blast
- Hydro Pump
- Poison Jab
"Oh, that's how you wo... wait, is that a Scarf?"
With Cloyster receiving the gift of Skill Link and Shell Smash, it immediately became a threat to OU. People actually started learning what White Herbs did, and actually using them. With doubled speed and attack through Shell Smash, Rock Blast, and STAB Icicle Spear, a single Cloyster could mow down an entire team with nary a second thought. All it had to do was use Shell Smash, and survive. That sort of threat forced many people to alter their teams to combat it. Hazards became slightly more prioritized, just for the chance of breaking a potential Focus Sash sitting on a Cloyster. Multiple Pokemon received priority moves, just to potentially break a Cloyster open. More pokemon learned crippling moves like Thunder Wave to hopefully stop a near-genocidal Cloyster in its tracks.
And of course, the correct way to counter that sort of counter play is... with more counter-play. Enter Scarf Cloyster. Even Smogon's OU Analysis of Cloyster warns against using this strategy, claiming that Cloyster is too weak alone to do any serious damage without a Shell Smash behind it. Sadly, that aspect is true. I couldn't exactly switch this into a Tyranitar and kill it unaided with a single Icicle Spear. Two could do the job, but a single Stone Edge would be enough to end those aspirations. However, Scarf Cloyster can be applied in many hilarious ways. It rips apart your typical special sweepers like Alakazam / Gengar / Espeon, just about every Dragon type in OU, any Grass type you'll find not under Sunny Day, and many more that I can't recall. My favorite trick with Scarf Cloyster is against Ninetales: a single Rock Blast to the face will obliterate the typical Ninetales attempting to Will-o-Wisp in fear of a Shell Smash. Switch in Abomasnow after that, and laugh at their now-irrelevant Venusaur / Sawsbuck / Lilligant.
All in all, Cloyster was one of the main damage dealers here. It finished the majority of the games, but I had to soften some of the harder-to-crack threats beforehand.
Kyurem-Black @ Expert Belt / Choice Scarf
Trait: Teravolt
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd (at times, I'd go for the Atk max instead)
Naive Nature
- Blizzard
- Earth Power / Hidden Power Fire
- Dragon Claw / Outrage
- Fusion Bolt
Back when I was doing that "OU" ladder (not OU Current), I used to use a regular Kyurem in this slot, with a SpAtk build. I ultimately switched to Kyu-B for the increased defense boost and the stat-boosted Electric attack. Still, I didn't want to lose Blizzard / Earth Power, so I turned Kyu-B into a mixed sweeper of sorts. I first experimented with Outrage, but ultimately didn't like it as I had the worst luck with confusion, getting 2 turns when I wanted 3, getting 3 turns when I wanted 2, etc. Dragon Claw pretty much served my purposes of ripping Dragon types in half and putting large dents in stuff that wasn't weak to the remainder of the moves I had on. Fusion Bolt worked miracles against Tentacruels / Politoeds / Keldeos (assuming I could survive an attack from one), and Blizzard end up being my go-to move. I was also an idiot, and forgot about Teravolt, so there were many cases when I would Dragon Claw into a Rotom, unaware that I could've probably one-shotted it with Earth Power instead.
I'm aware that there's currently discussion about whether or not Kyu-B should stay in OU or get moved back into Ubers, so I might as well use this space to explain my side. Kyu-B is powerful, but it's incredibly frail. No matter what additional type you throw onto it, Ice is just a poor defensive type. Without some sort of bulk, you're going to die in a hit or two. With Rocks out, it'll only take a single hit from your common threats. Not only is it frail, but it's slow to boot. Even with maximum investments in Speed and a benefiting nature, it still gets outsped by many common Steel/Fighting/Rock users, and often beaten to death with Priority moves. You basically are forced to either scarf it and hold it back until you wipe out anything that would survive an Outrage, or to play defensively with it (Sub/Roost). I tried to find value for it as a mixed sweeper, but the fact that it dies against just about any revenge killer tends to prevent any such opportunity.
Regice @ Leftovers
Trait: Clear Body
EVs: 252 SAtk / 248 HP / 8 SDef
Modest Nature
- Blizzard
- Thunderbolt
- Thunder Wave
- Hidden Power [Fire]
If my OU Mono-Ice run taught me any one lesson, it's that Regice is a boss. Without a doubt, Regice was the main damage-dealer of the team. I would attribute this mainly to absolutely nobody knowing how to deal with a Regice. With 80/100/200 defenses and 50/100/50 offenses, Regice naturally plays the role of a Sp.Def tank, akin to Blissey. Even without any noteworthy SpDef boosting, it can usually tank 2 Sun-boosted Flamethrowers from a Timid 252SpAtk Ninetales, and still send out a Thunder Wave. And with 80/100 Physical defenses, it can take a minor beating from non-steel/fire/fighting physical moves as well.
Regice was slow as sin, but it could usually survive a hit or five, and fire back with some impressive moves of its own. It could actually outspeed Forretress and OHKO (or trigger Sturdy on) it with HP Fire. It could take a single Bullet Punch from a Scizor and also OHKO with HP Fire (after a turn of Hail damage). Thunderbolt could generally 2HKO a Tentacruel / Politoed / Jellicent / Starmie / Skarmory (Guaranteed after a turn or two of Hail Damage, if necessary). And just think of all of the Dragons that were repeatedly ended by Blizzard. I'd see a Scarf Latios switch in, minorly dent Regice with a Draco Meteor, then get one-shotted in return, with Regice only missing ~25% HP for the trouble.
Sadly, as I was running a Mono-Ice team, I was cripplingly weak to physical Fighting/Rock/Steel/Fire moves, and Regice was no exception to that. If I could predict a switch-in to a Pokemon like Scizor/Tyranitar/Terrakion, I had Thunder Wave at the ready to cripple that threat. If necessary, Regice would even die for the cause, eager to let Kyurem-B earn the now-practically-guaranteed revenge kill.
Walrein @ Leftovers
Trait: Ice Body
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SAtk
Bold Nature
- Toxic / Blizzard / Super Fang
- Protect
- Substitute
- Hidden Power [Fire] / Toxic / Yawn
Of course, what Ice team could possibly leave out Stallrein? Likely the main reason that Snow Warning users were booted from lower-tier games, Walrein had a patented strategy of spamming Substitute/Protect repeatedly, re-healing the 25% after two moves (via Ice Body in Hail and Leftovers) to create a brand new Substitute the instant after the old one died. If the opposing Pokemon didn't have Leftovers or was burned/poisoned/had a Life Orb on, then you could effectively stall it to death. Most people are well aware of this strategy, and try to do anything necessary to avoid dying by it. That's a fairly easy thing to achieve, as they generally just have to switch into a Pokemon with Leftovers, and somehow avoid being Toxic'd (be a Steel type).
However, I didn't always run Toxic on Walrein. I originally started off with Blizzard and Toxic, but I didn't like the fact that the Pokemon that could generally avoid being poisoned were also generally resistant to Blizzard. So, I switched out Toxic entirely, and added HP Fire instead. See, I was in the habit of switching Walrein into opposing Scizors, in order to tank a few Bullet Punches for the team. However, when it came to Walrein's turn to choose a move, I had nothing to use. HP Fire took care of that issue, while Blizzard was able to handle Pokemon like the Genies.
I then learned that Walrein might suffer from an even worse case of 4 moveslot syndrome than Abomasnow, as I found myself in a few stall battles that I couldn't win, thanks to Toxic no longer being a part of my moveset. I tinkered around with other options, and discovered that Yawn, while forcing a lot of switches, doesn't really help when I don't have much of a reliable way to both set up hazards and avoid opposing hazards (Froslass is amazing, but I can only expect so much out of it). Super Fang was a neat option, but accuracy was an issue at times, and was never a clean kill / disable when I needed one. Near the end of this experiment, I switched to HP Fire and Toxic, deciding that other Pokemon on the team are probably better adapted to abusing Ice-type moves than Walrein.
Of course, you're not really having fun battling unless you're winning, right?
The actual score of concern is that 'oucurrent' score. Even though the 'ou' score below that was also earned entirely with a Mono-Ice team... but I'll say more about that later. Yeah, the ladder has been slightly inflated as of recently. I'm not entirely sure why myself, but last time I did any serious ladder battles, it was still possible to lose rank even after a victory, so I imagine the recent influx of 2300-2900 scores is due in part to that. You can see here that ~1800 Glicko2 now correlates to about a 50% win rate, so all in all, I performed about on par with the rest of the community on Showdown. I ended up with a 99/101/0 record after my 200 battles, due in part to a 10 battle losing streak right after my 92nd victory.
Yeah, it's not even a 50% win rate. It's actually 49.5%, but it's still not 50%. Even though I'm just under that 50% win rate, it still represents the fact that I beat (just about) half of the teams I've faced. And with 200 total battles in, that deviation is incredibly low. Much lower than you'll find anywhere near the top of the ladder. After all, bad luck and bad prediction have to happen eventually. Also, with that GXE of 77, I'm apparently predicted to be able to beat 77% of all of the players on the ladder... not bad for a team as janky as this one!
So, are you worried that I was just beating on other weak, janky teams?
In all 200 of those battles, I fought against a single Mono-Dragon team. After picking off the Cloyster threats, I had Cloyster sweep. Other than that, every team I fought was either a Sand team (approx. 45%), a Rain team (approx. 35%), a non-weather full-OU team (approx. 10%), a Sun team (approx. 10%), a Hail team (1 occurrence), or a UU-esque team (3-5 occurrences). And when I say Sand/Rain/Sun teams, I mean that you're going to find 90% of their Pokemon on that team solidly perched in the OU tier. There might be the odd Lilligant on a Sun Team, or a Machamp wherever it wants to be.
I will tell you now, 200 battles of seeing mostly the same 50 Pokemon in slightly different team compositions can be mentally draining. I've avoided this in the past by not doing nearly this many battles in any stretch, or by hiding in Hackmons, where the 'meta' changes every time somebody jumps on the ladder with a different team. This is actually the main reason why I wanted to post this: to show you that doing something completely off-the-wall in Teambuilder can actually be pretty fun.
Not only was it fun, but it was far more effective than I imagined. About 100 teams, the wide majority of which wouldn't look out of place in the top ranks of an OU tournament, fell to a Mono-Ice team. People as high up as the 2170 ranks lost. I was honestly expecting fewer than 50 total wins out of this, so the fact that I basically doubled that prediction still astounds me. I could attribute part of it to just not knowing how some of the Pokemon that I used worked: I've had people attempt to Fake Out my Froslass, or smack it the next turn with a Bullet Punch when I had used Destiny Bond at the end of my last turn, or gape in awe as Regice heals back almost all of the damage that it took from a Rain-boosted Scald with only its Leftovers. Part of it could be explained by the weird strategies I used: Who expects a Walrein to 1-2HKO a Scizor? What kind of moron puts a Scarf on a Cloyster? What kind of moron doesn't put a Scarf on an all-offensive Kyu-B?
And finally, it was a fantastic learning opportunity for the 200 opponents I faced, as well as for myself. I got a large taste of the OU climate, and they learned a thing or two about Pokemon that didn't even enter their thought processes during team building. In general, the more talkative opponents all loved the idea of using weird teams like this, and only one opponent replied something along the lines of "bg only took 14 turns to beat you" (if I didn't say it before, Scarfed Terrakion / Jirachi / Keldeo / Landorus hit like a truck of bricks careening into a glass wall).
Oh yeah, and that 'ou' record from before? That was way back when we didn't have an 'oucurrent' tier, and when I was experimenting with running Mamoswine / Kyurem / Jynx while in the midst of messing around in OU with weird teams. All of those ended up being mono-ice battles, as I never felt like using my 'proper' team.
And more!
Since I haven't posted here since the Mollux CAP discussion, and have only been sporadically on Showdown within the past 2-3 weeks, I figure a re-introduction of sorts is in order. I'm Ataraxia, formerly Elite Four Lorelei, formerly Okuu, one of the somewhat-older staff members of Showdown. Unofficially, I'm the moderator-moderator of Showdown(If you've got problems with another staff member, or need spammers muted, or just need another moderator in chat, I'm one of the people to go to). I also mess around a bit on OU, tending to avoid common meta strategies and instead make stupid teams to teach ladder players about threats that they would never consider. I've also been mostly missing from Showdown for the past 9 or so months, and will probably continue to be largely not-present for months to come. However, in the free time I've managed to scrounge together, I came up with a fun challenge for myself:
200 battles, all in OU Current, with this team:
That's right, Mono-Ice in OU Current (as in, not OU Monotype). For many people, running into this team was a joyous occasion. Some people enjoyed the unique sorts of challenges this team brought. I mean, what better to break up the monotony of Steel types and top thirty OU choices than a Mono-Ice team featuring Pokemon from NU / UU / BL? Other people enjoyed the basically-free win that they thought they were guaranteed by facing against a team full of the worst defensive typing (Ice) in the game. And a few more people just liked seeing a Showdown! staff member in 'action'. Whatever the reasons were, fun was had by many.
Team in detail:
Froslass (F) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Cursed Body
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Jolly Nature
- Ice Shard / Icy Wind (With Timid Nature and maxed SpAtk in lieu of Atk)
- Spikes
- Taunt
- Destiny Bond
Teambuilder was a continuous friend and valuable resource for me. I constantly tweaked multiple aspects of my team. Sometimes to react to common threats, and sometimes just to see if different ideas worked better. Though I kept the same 6 Pokemon the entire time, I would alter things like their stats and moves to aid my quest to (what I hoped would be) 200 straight victories. That said, Froslass was one of the Pokemon that I rarely made changes to. It was my dedicated lead, and Spikes/Taunt/Destiny Bond didn't leave it for a moment.
For my first 105 battles, it was amazing at predictive counterplay: constantly ruining the opponent's set-ups, forcing switches, and sacrificing itself to kill whatever happened to attack it (be it weather starters or set-up-mons or priority sweepers who didn't know how Destiny Bond works). Interestingly, at that point, Froslass was officially moved out of UU into BL. This led to many more people knowing about it, understanding how it works, and learning how to play against it. Coincidentally, my success rate with it plummeted. Still, it presented itself as a fantastic threat, and Mono-Ice doesn't have many Pokemon as good as preventing opponents from setting up hazards as Froslass.
My only real debate when it came to changing things was Ice Shard versus Icy Wind. All in all, I liked Ice Shard better: it generally 2HKO'd Aerodactyl, annihilated any Ninjasks, and could net some decent damage against dragons if I somehow didn't get to Destiny Bond with it earlier. Icy Wind did get a decent application in crippling a Tyranitar, but the fact that it has a 90% hit rate ultimately pushed me away from it.
Also, it's still hilarious whenever anyone attempts to Fake Out / Mach Punch / other fighting move against Froslass. Free set-up turn!
Abomasnow @ Leftovers / Choice Scarf
Trait: Snow Warning
EVs: 172 HP / 252 Atk / 84 Spd (varying with other movesets / items)
Adamant Nature
- Ice Shard / Blizzard (with Modest nature and max'd SpAtk in lieu of Atk)
- Earthquake / Brick Break
- Protect / Wood Hammer / HP Fire (with Modest nature and max'd SpAtk in lieu of Atk)
- Leech Seed / Giga Drain (with Modest nature and max'd SpAtk in lieu of Atk)
Hail is one of those things that's almost unanimously understood to be underpowered. With Snow Cloak banned, it only serves to minorly annoy any Pokemon that isn't an Ice type, to trigger the Ice Body ability of 4 pokemon that loiter around the NU/UU regions of the metagame, and to maximize Blizzard's accuracy. It offers no defensive benefits, no offensive benefits, and doesn't assist your typical multi-type team in any way/shape/form. Even the Pokemon that insta-Hail is attached to is generally understood as underpowered.
Fortunately, for Abomasnow, it features a diverse enough movepool to end up suffering a major case of 4-moveslot syndrome. Depending on what you want it to do, it can stall, it can tank, or it can surprise a hapless switch-in. For the majority of my battles, I stuck with Ice Shard / EQ / Protect / Leech Seed. It led to Abomasnow becoming a fairly useful scout, surprise Garchomp killer, surprise Heatran-switchin killer, and a nice way to force an incoming Tyranitar to switch right back out (getting Seeded). It still ended up dying just about as often as Froslass did, but it could put a solid dent in an opponent, and it usually ended up winning the weather war. Whether that weather war was won with my team composition, my "skill" as a trainer, or the opponent's lack of caring about Hail in general, I have yet to find out.
Cloyster @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Skill Link
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Jolly Nature
- Icicle Spear
- Rock Blast
- Hydro Pump
- Poison Jab
"Oh, that's how you wo... wait, is that a Scarf?"
With Cloyster receiving the gift of Skill Link and Shell Smash, it immediately became a threat to OU. People actually started learning what White Herbs did, and actually using them. With doubled speed and attack through Shell Smash, Rock Blast, and STAB Icicle Spear, a single Cloyster could mow down an entire team with nary a second thought. All it had to do was use Shell Smash, and survive. That sort of threat forced many people to alter their teams to combat it. Hazards became slightly more prioritized, just for the chance of breaking a potential Focus Sash sitting on a Cloyster. Multiple Pokemon received priority moves, just to potentially break a Cloyster open. More pokemon learned crippling moves like Thunder Wave to hopefully stop a near-genocidal Cloyster in its tracks.
And of course, the correct way to counter that sort of counter play is... with more counter-play. Enter Scarf Cloyster. Even Smogon's OU Analysis of Cloyster warns against using this strategy, claiming that Cloyster is too weak alone to do any serious damage without a Shell Smash behind it. Sadly, that aspect is true. I couldn't exactly switch this into a Tyranitar and kill it unaided with a single Icicle Spear. Two could do the job, but a single Stone Edge would be enough to end those aspirations. However, Scarf Cloyster can be applied in many hilarious ways. It rips apart your typical special sweepers like Alakazam / Gengar / Espeon, just about every Dragon type in OU, any Grass type you'll find not under Sunny Day, and many more that I can't recall. My favorite trick with Scarf Cloyster is against Ninetales: a single Rock Blast to the face will obliterate the typical Ninetales attempting to Will-o-Wisp in fear of a Shell Smash. Switch in Abomasnow after that, and laugh at their now-irrelevant Venusaur / Sawsbuck / Lilligant.
All in all, Cloyster was one of the main damage dealers here. It finished the majority of the games, but I had to soften some of the harder-to-crack threats beforehand.
Kyurem-Black @ Expert Belt / Choice Scarf
Trait: Teravolt
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd (at times, I'd go for the Atk max instead)
Naive Nature
- Blizzard
- Earth Power / Hidden Power Fire
- Dragon Claw / Outrage
- Fusion Bolt
Back when I was doing that "OU" ladder (not OU Current), I used to use a regular Kyurem in this slot, with a SpAtk build. I ultimately switched to Kyu-B for the increased defense boost and the stat-boosted Electric attack. Still, I didn't want to lose Blizzard / Earth Power, so I turned Kyu-B into a mixed sweeper of sorts. I first experimented with Outrage, but ultimately didn't like it as I had the worst luck with confusion, getting 2 turns when I wanted 3, getting 3 turns when I wanted 2, etc. Dragon Claw pretty much served my purposes of ripping Dragon types in half and putting large dents in stuff that wasn't weak to the remainder of the moves I had on. Fusion Bolt worked miracles against Tentacruels / Politoeds / Keldeos (assuming I could survive an attack from one), and Blizzard end up being my go-to move. I was also an idiot, and forgot about Teravolt, so there were many cases when I would Dragon Claw into a Rotom, unaware that I could've probably one-shotted it with Earth Power instead.
I'm aware that there's currently discussion about whether or not Kyu-B should stay in OU or get moved back into Ubers, so I might as well use this space to explain my side. Kyu-B is powerful, but it's incredibly frail. No matter what additional type you throw onto it, Ice is just a poor defensive type. Without some sort of bulk, you're going to die in a hit or two. With Rocks out, it'll only take a single hit from your common threats. Not only is it frail, but it's slow to boot. Even with maximum investments in Speed and a benefiting nature, it still gets outsped by many common Steel/Fighting/Rock users, and often beaten to death with Priority moves. You basically are forced to either scarf it and hold it back until you wipe out anything that would survive an Outrage, or to play defensively with it (Sub/Roost). I tried to find value for it as a mixed sweeper, but the fact that it dies against just about any revenge killer tends to prevent any such opportunity.
Regice @ Leftovers
Trait: Clear Body
EVs: 252 SAtk / 248 HP / 8 SDef
Modest Nature
- Blizzard
- Thunderbolt
- Thunder Wave
- Hidden Power [Fire]
If my OU Mono-Ice run taught me any one lesson, it's that Regice is a boss. Without a doubt, Regice was the main damage-dealer of the team. I would attribute this mainly to absolutely nobody knowing how to deal with a Regice. With 80/100/200 defenses and 50/100/50 offenses, Regice naturally plays the role of a Sp.Def tank, akin to Blissey. Even without any noteworthy SpDef boosting, it can usually tank 2 Sun-boosted Flamethrowers from a Timid 252SpAtk Ninetales, and still send out a Thunder Wave. And with 80/100 Physical defenses, it can take a minor beating from non-steel/fire/fighting physical moves as well.
Regice was slow as sin, but it could usually survive a hit or five, and fire back with some impressive moves of its own. It could actually outspeed Forretress and OHKO (or trigger Sturdy on) it with HP Fire. It could take a single Bullet Punch from a Scizor and also OHKO with HP Fire (after a turn of Hail damage). Thunderbolt could generally 2HKO a Tentacruel / Politoed / Jellicent / Starmie / Skarmory (Guaranteed after a turn or two of Hail Damage, if necessary). And just think of all of the Dragons that were repeatedly ended by Blizzard. I'd see a Scarf Latios switch in, minorly dent Regice with a Draco Meteor, then get one-shotted in return, with Regice only missing ~25% HP for the trouble.
Sadly, as I was running a Mono-Ice team, I was cripplingly weak to physical Fighting/Rock/Steel/Fire moves, and Regice was no exception to that. If I could predict a switch-in to a Pokemon like Scizor/Tyranitar/Terrakion, I had Thunder Wave at the ready to cripple that threat. If necessary, Regice would even die for the cause, eager to let Kyurem-B earn the now-practically-guaranteed revenge kill.
Walrein @ Leftovers
Trait: Ice Body
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SAtk
Bold Nature
- Toxic / Blizzard / Super Fang
- Protect
- Substitute
- Hidden Power [Fire] / Toxic / Yawn
Of course, what Ice team could possibly leave out Stallrein? Likely the main reason that Snow Warning users were booted from lower-tier games, Walrein had a patented strategy of spamming Substitute/Protect repeatedly, re-healing the 25% after two moves (via Ice Body in Hail and Leftovers) to create a brand new Substitute the instant after the old one died. If the opposing Pokemon didn't have Leftovers or was burned/poisoned/had a Life Orb on, then you could effectively stall it to death. Most people are well aware of this strategy, and try to do anything necessary to avoid dying by it. That's a fairly easy thing to achieve, as they generally just have to switch into a Pokemon with Leftovers, and somehow avoid being Toxic'd (be a Steel type).
However, I didn't always run Toxic on Walrein. I originally started off with Blizzard and Toxic, but I didn't like the fact that the Pokemon that could generally avoid being poisoned were also generally resistant to Blizzard. So, I switched out Toxic entirely, and added HP Fire instead. See, I was in the habit of switching Walrein into opposing Scizors, in order to tank a few Bullet Punches for the team. However, when it came to Walrein's turn to choose a move, I had nothing to use. HP Fire took care of that issue, while Blizzard was able to handle Pokemon like the Genies.
I then learned that Walrein might suffer from an even worse case of 4 moveslot syndrome than Abomasnow, as I found myself in a few stall battles that I couldn't win, thanks to Toxic no longer being a part of my moveset. I tinkered around with other options, and discovered that Yawn, while forcing a lot of switches, doesn't really help when I don't have much of a reliable way to both set up hazards and avoid opposing hazards (Froslass is amazing, but I can only expect so much out of it). Super Fang was a neat option, but accuracy was an issue at times, and was never a clean kill / disable when I needed one. Near the end of this experiment, I switched to HP Fire and Toxic, deciding that other Pokemon on the team are probably better adapted to abusing Ice-type moves than Walrein.
Of course, you're not really having fun battling unless you're winning, right?
The actual score of concern is that 'oucurrent' score. Even though the 'ou' score below that was also earned entirely with a Mono-Ice team... but I'll say more about that later. Yeah, the ladder has been slightly inflated as of recently. I'm not entirely sure why myself, but last time I did any serious ladder battles, it was still possible to lose rank even after a victory, so I imagine the recent influx of 2300-2900 scores is due in part to that. You can see here that ~1800 Glicko2 now correlates to about a 50% win rate, so all in all, I performed about on par with the rest of the community on Showdown. I ended up with a 99/101/0 record after my 200 battles, due in part to a 10 battle losing streak right after my 92nd victory.
Yeah, it's not even a 50% win rate. It's actually 49.5%, but it's still not 50%. Even though I'm just under that 50% win rate, it still represents the fact that I beat (just about) half of the teams I've faced. And with 200 total battles in, that deviation is incredibly low. Much lower than you'll find anywhere near the top of the ladder. After all, bad luck and bad prediction have to happen eventually. Also, with that GXE of 77, I'm apparently predicted to be able to beat 77% of all of the players on the ladder... not bad for a team as janky as this one!
So, are you worried that I was just beating on other weak, janky teams?
In all 200 of those battles, I fought against a single Mono-Dragon team. After picking off the Cloyster threats, I had Cloyster sweep. Other than that, every team I fought was either a Sand team (approx. 45%), a Rain team (approx. 35%), a non-weather full-OU team (approx. 10%), a Sun team (approx. 10%), a Hail team (1 occurrence), or a UU-esque team (3-5 occurrences). And when I say Sand/Rain/Sun teams, I mean that you're going to find 90% of their Pokemon on that team solidly perched in the OU tier. There might be the odd Lilligant on a Sun Team, or a Machamp wherever it wants to be.
I will tell you now, 200 battles of seeing mostly the same 50 Pokemon in slightly different team compositions can be mentally draining. I've avoided this in the past by not doing nearly this many battles in any stretch, or by hiding in Hackmons, where the 'meta' changes every time somebody jumps on the ladder with a different team. This is actually the main reason why I wanted to post this: to show you that doing something completely off-the-wall in Teambuilder can actually be pretty fun.
Not only was it fun, but it was far more effective than I imagined. About 100 teams, the wide majority of which wouldn't look out of place in the top ranks of an OU tournament, fell to a Mono-Ice team. People as high up as the 2170 ranks lost. I was honestly expecting fewer than 50 total wins out of this, so the fact that I basically doubled that prediction still astounds me. I could attribute part of it to just not knowing how some of the Pokemon that I used worked: I've had people attempt to Fake Out my Froslass, or smack it the next turn with a Bullet Punch when I had used Destiny Bond at the end of my last turn, or gape in awe as Regice heals back almost all of the damage that it took from a Rain-boosted Scald with only its Leftovers. Part of it could be explained by the weird strategies I used: Who expects a Walrein to 1-2HKO a Scizor? What kind of moron puts a Scarf on a Cloyster? What kind of moron doesn't put a Scarf on an all-offensive Kyu-B?
And finally, it was a fantastic learning opportunity for the 200 opponents I faced, as well as for myself. I got a large taste of the OU climate, and they learned a thing or two about Pokemon that didn't even enter their thought processes during team building. In general, the more talkative opponents all loved the idea of using weird teams like this, and only one opponent replied something along the lines of "bg only took 14 turns to beat you" (if I didn't say it before, Scarfed Terrakion / Jirachi / Keldeo / Landorus hit like a truck of bricks careening into a glass wall).
Oh yeah, and that 'ou' record from before? That was way back when we didn't have an 'oucurrent' tier, and when I was experimenting with running Mamoswine / Kyurem / Jynx while in the midst of messing around in OU with weird teams. All of those ended up being mono-ice battles, as I never felt like using my 'proper' team.
