Statistics
|
Min- |
Min |
Max |
Max+ |
| HP |
65
|
- |
271 |
334 |
- |
| Atk |
60
|
140 |
156 |
219 |
240 |
| Def |
110
|
230 |
256 |
319 |
350 |
| SpA |
130
|
266 |
296 |
359 |
394 |
| SpD |
95
|
203 |
226 |
289 |
317 |
| Spe |
65
|
149 |
166 |
229 |
251 |
Ice Beam's accuracy and greater PP make it superior to Blizzard, unless used in Hail (Blizzard never misses in Hail). Hidden Power Fighting, used in concert with Ice Beam, allows Glaceon to score at least a neutral hit on nearly every Pokémon as it is super effective against Steel and Ice most notable here being Probopass and Bastiodon. With Fake Tears and Wish, Glaceon can decimate the defenses of special walls like Clefable and Hypno, healing itself along the way. This forces your opponent to risk taking heavy damage to bring in something that can force Glaceon to switch out. Wish has the added benefit of supporting the rest of your team should Glaceon find itself in an unfavorable situation.
Glaceon has the luxury of adding Shadow Ball to its repertoire when using a Choice item to guarantee a minimum of neutral damage on every Pokémon in the game and with Choice Specs is now capable of 2HKOing both Hypno and Grumpig. A base Special Attack of 130 and STAB on Ice Beam (again, Blizzard on Hail teams) rivals the firepower wielded by Heatran and will severely maim anything that does not resist it outright. Due to Glaceon’s terrible offensive movepool Sleep Talk is used and will allow Glaceon to absorb Hypnosis, Sleep Powder, etc. while maintain its usefulness. The EV spread listed is for the Choice Specs set. If you want to use Choice Scarf you will need to invest 216 EVs into Speed with a Timid Nature, as that will allow Glaceon to obtain a Speed of 363 outspeeding everything in UU albeit Swellow, Electrode and other Scarfed Pokémon.
When you think of Glaceon, most tend to only see its immense Special Attack and forget about its defensive capabilities, but a second look would show they are actually quite respectable despite Glaceon’s base 65 HP. Curse boosts Glaceon’s Attack and Defense but due to it’s paltry base 60 Attack it is in Glaceon’s best interest to function as a Baton Passer passing the stat boosts to a Pokémon more capable of using instead of trying to be a physical sweeper, a job it will fail miserably at. Ice Beam is actually the preferred attack on the set despite its focus on its physical stats as it takes advantage of Glaceon’s large Special Attack stat as even boosted Avalanche fails to deal significant damage to the physical tanks in UU.
Other Options
Glaceon has a variety of other options it can make use of. The only other offensive options worth noting are other types of Hidden Power, namely Grass and Electric. Hidden Power Electric provides coverage against Water-types, while Hidden Power Grass provides coverage against Water-types that aren't part Flying-type.
In the category of support: Yawn is available to encourage your opponent to switch and might even put something to Sleep in the process. If you are looking to outright force a switch, Roar is an option, but there are multitudes of Pokémon that make better use of that move. Hail could be used to boost evasion with Snow Cloak and make Blizzard usable, but it is difficult to justify using a moveslot on that. Mirror Coat has novelty value but little utility. And as with most every other Pokémon, Toxic and Substitute are available for general annoying and stalling purposes.
EVs
Running a healthy amount of HP EVs makes use of Glaceon's respectable defenses and allows it to actually take a hit or two. 48 Speed EVs allow Glaceon to outrun minimum Speed base 70s such as Poliwrath, Hitmontop, and Mantine. Offensive Glaceon should always be Modest and the rest should be spent in Special Attack, unless you want to run a Choice Scarf where a minimum of 216 EVs and a Timid nature should be used to outspeed positive natured base 115 Pokémon like Persian. The Curse set should focus mostly on Special Defense and HP to allow it to take a few hits while boosting its Defense with Curse.
Opinion
Glaceon has quite a few drawbacks in its stats and movepool but on the positive side: Ice really is a fabulous offensive type, and Glaceon is fully capable of taking advantage of that with its monstrous Special Attack. If your opponent is overly reliant on Hypno or Clefable to sponge special assaults, they will be in for a rude awakening when you bring Fake Tears or Specs Glaceon into the battle. Also, once Glaceon is in the match, it is quite difficult to switch to something that can force it out without risking a big hit. The primary problem with Glaceon is that its movepool is shallow even by "Eeveelution" standards; also, because Glaceon is Ice-type with exactly one resistance (Ice) and a Stealth Rock weakness, it can be quite difficult to bring into a match. You will have to rely heavily on your prediction skills to get it into the fray.
To sum up, Glaceon is a niche Pokémon that has the potential to be downright devastating in certain situations while offering a refreshing change of pace from the bog standards.
Counters
Surprisingly, when considering which Pokémon counter Glaceon, there are very few that fit the strict definition of being able to switch in with impunity and pose an threat. Lanturn, Poliwrath, Blastoise and Probopass are four that do make the cut since a neutral; non-STAB hit is the best Glaceon can hope to do against them (albeit Probopass can be hit with Hidden Power Fighting). If Glaceon finds itself up against any sweeper that uses Fighting or Rock moves, it must switch. Fortunately, most Pokémon of that kind (Hitmonlee, Aggron, Hitmonchan, Armaldo, Steelix, Primeape come to mind) don’t have the stomach to switch into Glaceon’s potent Ice Beams.
