Other Vanilla Ice (Monotype)

[Art Vandelay]

Hi, I started playing monotype a few months ago but didn't take it seriously. Now I've looked more into matchups and viability rankings and decided to give Ice a try. My team might seem generic maybe but hey that's all Ice has to offer so here it is.

Froslass @ Focus Sash
Ability: Cursed Body
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Taunt
- Shadow Ball
- Spikes
- Destiny Bond

Standard Froslass lead. I go with Shadow Ball because my whole team has an Ice attack already and has proven useful against certain matchups such as Psychic or Ghost. I try to save Froslass against Fighting or Bug so I get a Fighting immunity which is big, at the same time I always try to lead if I suspect my opponent is going to set up Stealth Rock asap. If I can't do anything about it i.e. Shuckle then I can spin later with Avalugg.

Avalugg @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Avalanche
- Earthquake
- Recover

Again, standard tank set. It can survive some SE effective attacks and recover the damage. Only thing is sometimes it can't spin because of offensive pressure. I'd rather get the kill on Mega Pinsir than spin rocks for example but that leaves me with a crippled Avalugg. All in all, one of the most important team members. Sometimes I wish he had Toxic but Earthquake makes him not MegaMetagross' bitch.

Weavile (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Ice Shard
- Swords Dance/Low Kick
- Icicle Crash
- Knock Off

Weavile is my cleaner and revenge killer. He outspeeds most of the unscarfed meta and has great coverage with its STABs. Only problem is that priority kills him (Bullet Punch, Mach Punch) while Ice Shard sometimes doesn't do much against such priority users (Scizor, Conkeldur, Metagross, etc). At the same time, I found Low Kick very underwhelming and rather unnecessary 90% of the times. However, with the current set I can't revenge Keldeo :( (unless I use Aerial Ace lol). Don't know if the SD set is better in monotype but it's what I'm currently using.

Kyurem-Black @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Ice Beam
- Earth Power
- Iron Head
- Fusion Bolt

So here is what I think I need help with. Kyu-B has been great and all but sometimes I feel like I want him scarfed, sometimes I want him AV and sometimes I want Roost + 3 attacks and lefties. I know Sitrus sucks but the idea was to sorta bluff a choiced item. I'd prefer not to use a choiced item, especially with a monoice team because switching is not very rewarding. I don't have much resistances and hazards kill this team. Also, I used to have Outrage instead of Iron Head but Clefable has been a HUGE problem for this team (only 2HKOd by Weavile or Mamo). At least Iron Head should help me with a 2HKO. This thing is bulky and because of the dragon typing has actually some resistances I can take advantage but generally I don't switch him into something, I bring him after someone has died or lead with him against Dragon teams if I suspect Dragonite is leading. I chose Kyurem-B over Kyurem-W because the coverage from Electric/Ice helps a lot against the better monotype teams (Flying, Water) as oppose to a harder Ice Beam and a Fire coverage. I'm open to a lot of suggestions for this guy but would prefer to keep him and not go Kyurem-W.

Mamoswine @ Life Orb
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Icicle Crash
- Ice Shard

Mamoswine, the ultimate weapon. This guy is so clutch bringing Stealth Rock against Bug, Fire and Electric immunity in general. I went bulky because his speed isn't that great to begin with. I didn't add EVs on HP because I always felt is dumb to have 252 HP EVs with Life Orb draining your HP every attack. I rather have them on Def which is ok, his SpDef is horrendous and the HP is not gonna help much. With 252 Def EVs, this thing has lived many many Flare Blitz, Mach Punches, Iron Heads, etc. from unsuspecting enemies. No one expects him to live any SE attack and he still hits really hard back. Ice Shard provides my second priority and it is pretty strong and somehow makes up for the lack of speed against some threats. I have considered replacing Life Orb with Babiri or Chople Berry to help Avalugg in a pinch. I'm inclining to go Babiri so that he can lure MegaGross and KO back with EQ.

Walrein (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Super Fang
- Ice Beam
- Surf

Got this set from the viability rankings, it is surprisingly decent. It laughs at most Fire attacks and can actually sponge Scizor's BP twice to bring him into Ice Shard range with HP Fire. Really clutch against Bug because it is my only answer against Volcarona and Genesect. Super Fang helps a lot against walls and CM users. My only gripe is that because of his typing and ability sometimes I overload him with walling duties. For example, if there is a Scizor on the other team I would have to sac Walrein to kill him, but that leaves me open to any other Fire user to dent holes on my team. I'm open to suggestion for this one as well. Have considered switching to Calm + lefties but the damage output is pretty good and I feel with a fully SpDef set I'd become set up bait for many sweepers like Volcarona (unless I carry Roar).


Here are some replays of this team so you get an idea of my playstyle and how do I deal with some threats. This replays come from the bottom of the ladder so sometimes my opponents are not very good but it is just to show how the team works together. Please watch some of these before making suggestions as there is not much versatility on these type to play around and one change can leave me weak to several other things.

Replays:
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-207903599 <- against Bug
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-207906634 <- against Fairy
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-207907337 <- against Grass
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-207914871 <- against Electric
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-208448456 <- against Ground
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-208449080 <- against Bug
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-208449601 <- against Ground
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-208453665 <- against Dragon
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-208456626 <- against Bug
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-208457240 <- against Bug
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-208459306 <- against Grass
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-208674137 <- against Dragon
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-208674137 <- against Normal


I've peaked at mid 1300s but some matchups are autolose (Fire and anything with Keldeo lol) so I'm more like hanging around mid 1200s typically. Have only played two Flying teams so far (same fucking team yknow Zapdos, Togekiss, Lando, Skarm, etc,) and I won one and lost the other. It's all about getting rid of Skarmory and then my team does well. Grass is easy, Ground is kinda tricky (Exca) but overall ok matchup, Dragon is easy peasy, Fighting is hard, Psychic is ok, Fire is impossible lol, haven't seen a Rock team yet, Fairy is alright (F Clefable though), Water is hard and haven't faced the archetype Normal yet but can imagine Mega Lopunny being a pain in the ass.

So please RMT and I welcome suggestions, thanks!

 

[Lord Wallace]

Hey pretty cool looking team you have here.

I'm not very familiar with Monotype at all but I'm pretty sure KyuB would appreciate a Life Orb over Sitrus Berry for some real wallbreaking power, and perhaps Roost somewhere on that set wouldn't be bad to offset Stealth Rock and Life Orb recoil. Sitrus is kind of a crummy item in Singles to begin with. You could also use Sub Lefties but idk how good that is in Monotype and you miss out on quite a bit of power.

 

[Anttya]

Hi, nice team you have there. However, it'd be great if you could post it in the Monotype chat instead of the Viability Rankings. I'm sure you'll get more people that way too.

Anyways, as Darkerones said, you could use Life Orb over the berry since that's a lot better. If you want to bluff, you can try Expert Belt. If you have a lot of trouble with Fire, you could try Scarf Mamo since that KOs pretty much everything with Earthquake + Stone Edge. Revenge kills Metagross as well. The only problem is that you lose your SR user.

 

[n64lord]

If you want to bluff with kyurem-black you can give it babiri berry for a backup metagross check, or chople berry to help with keldeo.

I tend to run thunderwave on frosslass, as it has icy wind's utility of making fast pokemon vulnerable to destiny bond, while also denying them from making switches to scarfers without any punishment on the turn when it is obvious that I am going to destiny bond. It also means that you can keep it in the back against teams without pokemon that ever run sash/sturdy or with very strong defoggers so that you can use it to punish something like charizard or keldeo with status.

A lot of people run teams in monotype that are hyper offensive, so weavile will almost never get a chance to use swords dance. It can use coverage in poison jab (for clefable) and low kick (not as useful with walrein, but no need to let ferrothron and heatran do their thing for longer than you have to). Even though it's my favorite, Pursuit works against you if it is on the same moveset as knockoff.

It's an okay team. I don't really like how easy it is to make out everyone's role in team preview, and charizard X and swampert do more work against it than I'm comfortable with, on top of the traditional steel/fighting problem.

 

[InfernapeTropius11]

I would recommend using Kyurem-W over Kyurem-B, as with 170 SpA, and access to Focus Blast/Draco Meteor/Dragon Pulse/Fusion Flare/Earth Power/Flash Cannon/Ice Beam it can destroy a ton of types including the disadvantageous Steel matchup, and help with whatever you struggle with. It is unbanned for Ice only, so you should use that gift, and its probably gonna be rebanned as it is broken so abuse it while you can o3o. You are currently running 252 SpA Kyu-B, which I personally think is bad, as if you want a special attacker, use Kyu-W, it has 50 extra base SpA so it is a better special attacker. If you insist on keeping Kyu-B, utilise its 170 Atk with some investment, and you should probably run Scarf or LO, or a SubRoost or Roost+3 attacks set with Lefties. In those battles, Sitrus Berry only activated twice, and neither time really mattered. Also, your last two battles are the same. Superpower can be used over Stealth Rock on Mamoswine, allowing you to run Band or Scarf for more power or speed. It also helps a lot against Steel (specifically Scarf). Eviolite Piloswine could be another option over Froslass to set Rocks if you go with Scarf/Band Mamoswine to set Rocks and be your go-to physical Fire move absorber. Walrein handles special hits, and together they form a pretty good defensive core. These changes would help you handle your weaknesses to Steel, Fire, and Rock better, while also giving you some extra support in murdering Flying, Normal, and Dark. You might want to post some of your losses too, as if you win all of your games you don't need help lol, and it could help people see what you struggle with and some threats to your team, allowing us to help you more by telling you how to address these threats.

 

[Art Vandelay]

I guess you are right but the idea was to show ho the team sorta worked. 50% of my losses are steamrolls where either Keldeo or MegaGross sweep my whole team. I literally have nothing against Keldeo. I stated that the reason for using KyuremB was to have good coverage on Fusion Bolt/Earth Power/Ice Beam (why can't he learn Ice Punch??) And while I think sub + 3 attacks is my preferred set, it gets walled by bulky pokes like Umbreon, Clefable, Gastrodon, Porygon2. Can Froslass be used on a non lead set? I kinda like the typing but she is so frail... I'll consider adding Piloswine but what set would you recommend on KyuremB if I decide to go scarf Mamo?

 

[InfernapeTropius11]

Kyurem-Black @ Life Orb/Choice Scarf
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 240 Atk / 16 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Outrage/Dragon Claw
- Ice Beam
- Fusion Bolt
- Iron Head/Earth Power

Something like that is probably a good Kyu-B set (I may or may not have copied All Falls Down's EVs from the viability thread). Physical Dragon STAB is mandatory. Ice Beam is sadly your best STAB move, as Freeze Shock takes 2 turns. This forces Kyu-B to go mixed. Fusion Bolt is for stuff like Skarmory and bulky Water types. Iron Head or Earth Power is whether you want to kill Fairies such as Clefable or Steel types such as Heatran or Excadrill. Another option on Scarf Mamoswine is Iron Head. This lets you outspeed Mega Diancie and murder it, and is probably better than Ice Shard (you are Scarfed, so priority is a bit redundant. Weavile has priority). If you choose Iron Head on Scarf Mamoswine, use Earth Power on Kyu-B. Scarf is on aption over LO, allowing you to nail Keldeo with Fusion Bolt before it attacks (as long as it isn't Scarf). If it is Scarf, you kinda have to Destiny Bond with Froslass.

Mamoswine @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Icicle Crash
- Superpower/Iron Head/Stone Edge
- Superpower/Iron Head/Stone Edge

That's a good Mamoswine set. EQ/Icicle Crash are mandatory STABs. Then you choose 2 coverage moves. Stone Edge completes EdgeQuake and hits every Fire type for SE damage. Iron Head hits Fairies and Rock types, and specifically Mega Diancie. Superpower hits Rock and Steel types and also helps you in the mirror match, and the neutral matchups against Normal and Dark. Also nails Umbreon/Chansey/Porygon2/Mega Lopunny (who it outspeeds with Scarf).

Froslass could run a Specs set I guess. Something like BoltBeam/Shadow Ball/HP Grass (for Gastrodon) maybe?