HeaLnDeaL
Let's Keep Fighting
Alright, here's my Regice replays. Coming into the room today, I think there was a lot of undeserved hate for Regice. Really, Regice does what you expect it to do, just don't expect too much more and you'll be fine. Regice CAN take 2 or so super effective special hits. Regice CAN do damage against foes weak to ice or pitifully weak to electric. Regice might nab some charge beam boosts, but this goes into the risky territory. Essentially with Regice you have to play with a target-to-kill mentality, almost in the way Gothitelle plays in the basic sense (of course, the specifics on what to come in on, etc, varies between the two mons). Cylclohm should be your biggest target, since you can freely switch in and risk KOing right away. Landorus is another, just be wary of Super Power. And though the number of things Regice can flat out counter might be limited, there is a great deal of switch wiggle room that Regice provides in situations where you just need to bide some time. And by no means is 100 def bad, it's just that it doesn't want to take any super effective physical hits on the switch, which does limit its potential. However, it's something that can be forgiven when you know how to take advantage of Regice's strengths.
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/cap-162659881 Here we see a few things; for starters, my Regice misses a charge beam, but since the opposing Politoed was a renegade and Belly Drummed, I would have had to switch out the next turn anyway. Later in the match, Regice comes in to take a Beartic aqua jet, and ends up eating a Low Kick during the next turn. However, the recoil from the Beartic's Life Orb was enough to KO him in the process, creating a 1-for-1 KO trade off. Overall, the opponents team was so far off from a typical CAP team that not a whole lot of information could be gathered, but it did show Regice's physical limitations.
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/cap-162662344This is where things start to get interesting. Regice is able to take multiple scalds from a Manaphy AFTER it had set up tail glow. After the first charge beam boost, the opponent got fed up and just rage quite since his odds were very bleak at that point. Regice being able to tank massively powerful special moves? Who knew. However, this match does show the importance of softening up the opposing team before going in to Regice. A full team usually has enough switches left to navigate around damage, but Regice can start to shine once the opponent loses some options (I personally think it's not entirely about just losing checks/counters, but also options in general, since Regice's attacks do add up if the opponent has to share the damage between only 3 or 4 team members as opposed to 6).
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/cap-162665714Here we see a good example of Regice being able to completely focus in on a Cyclohm to the point of basically leaving it useless in the opponent's hands throughout the match. In the process, it also became necessary to deal some damage to Aurumoth. While charge beam did pitiful damage, frost breath was pretty passable, and Regice was within capacity to KO the moth but I chose to switch out in because I wanted Regice to have enough HP to finish off Cyclohm later. And I gotta say, Regice tanked those Auru focus blasts pretty well.
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/cap-162675593 (versus gday)This one is easily the closest match I had today with Regice. Here we see AV Regice taking just over 40% from a technician + life orb Ancient Power from Strategem. Overall, you'll see that Regice was played very conservatively, and towards the end I was not opposed to using Regice and a means to get some life orb recoil going on Strategem. There's no denying that Regice had a lot of support/help in the match, but the pieces of the team fit together and it worked out in a very narrow victory.
So, overall I think Regice has some undeniable merits. The premier special wall of the tier, Chansey, is bulkier and has access to recovery. However, Regice has some usable Sp. Atk and this mix of defense with nice offensive coverage I think helps give Regice a decent niche in the meta, even if it is small. It's typing is actually pretty decent in CAP, as it threatens some mons and keeps them at bay. A potential downside is that Regice is not a mon to just stay in and wrack up damage, and it will need to switch out. As a result, I think hazard removal is a must for the Ice Titan, otherwise you won't be getting the full utility of it's bulk. Regice may not be a Mega Heracross, but it's definitely not useless.
Tagging Kingriolu22 and Tadasuke to review the replays to see if they qualify for points, since it's unfair for me to review my own matches.
Edit: Here's a quick announcement, but thanks to Fluze3, this thread now has some cool art in the OP!
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/cap-162659881 Here we see a few things; for starters, my Regice misses a charge beam, but since the opposing Politoed was a renegade and Belly Drummed, I would have had to switch out the next turn anyway. Later in the match, Regice comes in to take a Beartic aqua jet, and ends up eating a Low Kick during the next turn. However, the recoil from the Beartic's Life Orb was enough to KO him in the process, creating a 1-for-1 KO trade off. Overall, the opponents team was so far off from a typical CAP team that not a whole lot of information could be gathered, but it did show Regice's physical limitations.
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/cap-162662344This is where things start to get interesting. Regice is able to take multiple scalds from a Manaphy AFTER it had set up tail glow. After the first charge beam boost, the opponent got fed up and just rage quite since his odds were very bleak at that point. Regice being able to tank massively powerful special moves? Who knew. However, this match does show the importance of softening up the opposing team before going in to Regice. A full team usually has enough switches left to navigate around damage, but Regice can start to shine once the opponent loses some options (I personally think it's not entirely about just losing checks/counters, but also options in general, since Regice's attacks do add up if the opponent has to share the damage between only 3 or 4 team members as opposed to 6).
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/cap-162665714Here we see a good example of Regice being able to completely focus in on a Cyclohm to the point of basically leaving it useless in the opponent's hands throughout the match. In the process, it also became necessary to deal some damage to Aurumoth. While charge beam did pitiful damage, frost breath was pretty passable, and Regice was within capacity to KO the moth but I chose to switch out in because I wanted Regice to have enough HP to finish off Cyclohm later. And I gotta say, Regice tanked those Auru focus blasts pretty well.
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/cap-162675593 (versus gday)This one is easily the closest match I had today with Regice. Here we see AV Regice taking just over 40% from a technician + life orb Ancient Power from Strategem. Overall, you'll see that Regice was played very conservatively, and towards the end I was not opposed to using Regice and a means to get some life orb recoil going on Strategem. There's no denying that Regice had a lot of support/help in the match, but the pieces of the team fit together and it worked out in a very narrow victory.
So, overall I think Regice has some undeniable merits. The premier special wall of the tier, Chansey, is bulkier and has access to recovery. However, Regice has some usable Sp. Atk and this mix of defense with nice offensive coverage I think helps give Regice a decent niche in the meta, even if it is small. It's typing is actually pretty decent in CAP, as it threatens some mons and keeps them at bay. A potential downside is that Regice is not a mon to just stay in and wrack up damage, and it will need to switch out. As a result, I think hazard removal is a must for the Ice Titan, otherwise you won't be getting the full utility of it's bulk. Regice may not be a Mega Heracross, but it's definitely not useless.
Tagging Kingriolu22 and Tadasuke to review the replays to see if they qualify for points, since it's unfair for me to review my own matches.
Edit: Here's a quick announcement, but thanks to Fluze3, this thread now has some cool art in the OP!
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