NU Alolan Ninetales [DONE]

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[OVERVIEW]

Snow Warning, great Speed, and a solid offensive typing distinguish Alolan Ninetales in roles as a support Pokemon and fast special attacker. Thanks to all these traits, Alolan Ninetales makes a great wallbreaker against Amoonguss and Vaporeon and a solid revenge killer against Flygon and Paldean Tauros-W. Snow helps Alolan Sandslash and Beartic to sweep, and Alolan Ninetales can lean into its snow setting by using Aurora Veil to support other dangerous setup sweepers like Scyther and Toxtricity. Snow even enables Alolan Ninetales itself, granting it a Defense boost and a perfectly accurate Blizzard. Alolan Ninetales is a good user of Terastallization to wallbreak more effectively, and it can quickly overwhelm supposed counterplay like Bronzong and Diancie. Unfortunately, Alolan Ninetales is walled by prominent Steel-types like Klefki, Bronzong, and Copperajah depending on its set and coverage, curtailing its own offensive presence. Fire-types like Chandelure, Incineroar, and Paldean Tauros-F are also troublesome for Alolan Ninetales, even if some of them don't resist Fairy. Despite snow mitigating Alolan Ninetales's poor Defense, physical attackers like Basculegion-M and Flamigo still hit Alolan Ninetales hard. Alolan Ninetales's Stealth Rock weakness makes its Heavy-Duty Boots sets vulnerable to Knock Off and disincentivizes running items besides Heavy-Duty Boots.

[SET]
name: Aurora Veil Support
move 1: Aurora Veil
move 2: Freeze-Dry / Blizzard
move 3: Encore
move 4: Moonblast / Foul Play
item: Icy Rock / Heavy-Duty Boots
ability: Snow Warning
nature: Timid
evs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 Spe
tera type: Water

[SET COMMENTS]
Set Details
====

Freeze-Dry is more threatening to prominent Water-types like Basculegion-M, Vaporeon, and Paldean Tauros-W. However, Blizzard hits more important KO thresholds, 2HKOing Cinccino, Amoonguss, and Toxtricity. Encore helps Alolan Ninetales lock passive Pokemon like Diancie and Alolan Muk into status moves, creating easier turns for setting up Aurora Veil. Foul Play can replace Moonblast to punish physical attackers like Basculegion-M, Steel-types, and Tera Steel Flygon, but it lacks Moonblast's superior coverage against Incineroar, Paldean Tauros-F, and Scrafty. Moonblast is also more important as coverage against Paldean Tauros-W if Alolan Ninetales drops Freeze-Dry for Blizzard. Icy Rock is more beneficial to teammates that rely on snow like Beartic and Alolan Sandslash, while Heavy-Duty Boots increase Alolan Ninetales's longevity in the face of entry hazards so that it can switch and set up snow more freely. Tera Water flips the Steel and Fire weaknesses into resistances, which is beneficial against Copperajah and Incineroar, and it gives Alolan Ninetales a generally good defensive typing with few weaknesses.

Alolan Sandslash and Beartic benefit most directly from Alolan Ninetales setting snow, and both of them enjoy Aurora Veil creating safer turns to set up Swords Dance. Aurora Veil also benefits setup sweepers that prefer multiple turns to fully set up like Scyther, Toxtricity, Scream Tail, Flygon, Paldean Tauros-F, and Double Dance Porygon-Z. Cinccino can keep entry hazards out of the picture with Tidy Up so that Alolan Ninetales can run Icy Rock, and Cinccino itself benefits from Aurora Veil mitigating its meager bulk and defensive utility. Diancie, Basculegion-M, and Paldean Tauros-W can check Fire-types like Chandelure and Hisuian Typhlosion that threaten Alolan Ninetales. Additionally, the first one can set hazards as well. Weather Ball users like Kilowattrel and Raikou can use snow set by Alolan Ninetales to benefit their coverage. Eject Button users like Galarian Slowbro and Amoonguss help Alolan Ninetales's teammates come onto the field safely to best take advantage of Alolan Ninetales's Aurora Veil.

[SET]
name: Nasty Plot
move 1: Nasty Plot
move 2: Moonblast
move 3: Freeze-Dry / Blizzard / Encore
move 4: Tera Blast / Dark Pulse / Encore
item: Heavy-Duty Boots
ability: Snow Warning
nature: Timid
evs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
tera type: Ground / Fire / Ghost / Water

[SET COMMENTS]
Set Details
====

Freeze-Dry's better effectiveness against bulky Water-types like Milotic and Vaporeon makes Alolan Ninetales an even more devastating wallbreaker than Blizzard would, but the greater power of Blizzard overwhelms special walls like Alolan Muk, Diancie, and Assault Vest Galarian Slowbro. Alolan Ninetales can use Encore over an Ice-type STAB or coverage move to facilitate itself as a setup sweeper by locking passive walls like Gastrodon, Porygon2, and Avalugg into useless status moves. Nasty Plot Alolan Ninetales greatly benefits from using Terastallilzation in conjunction with Tera Blast to surprise and overwhelm its checks. Tera Blast Ground beats Steel-types like Copperajah, Fire-types like Chandelure and Incineroar, and Poison-types like Alolan Muk and Galarian Slowbro. In addition, Tera Ground protects Alolan Ninetales from Thunder Wave users like Klefki and Porygon2, and it's a good defensive answer to Poison-type attacks from Alolan Muk and Munkidori while Alolan Ninetales sets up. Tera Blast Fire has similar offensive potency against Steel-types, and it's superior to Ground defensively against otherwise super effective Steel- and Fire-type attacks, though it makes Alolan Ninetales offensively weaker against Fire-types. Tera Ghost lets Alolan Ninetales use a Ghost-type Tera Blast to blow past Bronzong and Ghost-types like Chandelure and Hisuian Typhlosion. It also protects Alolan Ninetales from Cinccino as well as Speed-boosted Toxtricity and Porygon-Z for a critical turn, flips its Poison weakness against foes like Munkidori, and lets it take advantage of Body Press users like Avalugg and Bronzong. Dark Pulse covers Bronzong and Chandelure, and it's Alolan Ninetales's strongest attack against Galarian Slowbro and Munkidori if it lacks Blizzard. Tera Water offers Alolan Ninetales a convenient defensive typing to deal with its usual Fire and Steel weaknesses.

Alolan Ninetales makes for a good wallbreaker on offense and balance teams. Avalugg enjoys the Defense boost from snow, and along with walls like Cramorant and Altaria, it checks physical attackers like Flygon, Paldean Tauros-W, Infernape, and Scyther. Avalugg can also chip Steel-types like Bronzong and Copperajah and keep entry hazards off for Alolan Ninetales. Additionally, Altaria can run a Perish trap set to clear bothersome Steel- and Fire-types for Alolan Ninetales. Other hazard removers like Cinccino similarly chip Steel-types and can give Alolan Ninetales the freedom to run Life Orb. Ground-types like Flygon, Gastrodon, and Gligar can check Alolan Muk and pressure Fire-types and Steel-types besides Bronzong. Porygon2 and Incineroar are solid defensive answers to Hisuian Typhlosion and Chandelure, and the former can check Toxtricity, especially Choice Scarf variants, for Alolan Ninetales. Flygon, Fighting-types like Paldean Tauros-W, and Fire-types like Paldean Tauros-F can put the pressure on Steel-types like Klefki, Copperajah, and Bronzong so that Alolan Ninetales can finish them off late-game.

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
====

Choice Specs may seem appealing, as Blizzard and Moonblast are quite spammable, but Alolan Ninetales becomes very dependent on entry hazard control without the same payoff in power as other special wallbreakers like Chandelure, Toxtricity, and Porygon-Z have. A set of Aurora Veil / Nasty Plot / Moonblast with one of Freeze-Dry, Blizzard, Tera Blast, or Dark Pulse can be used to wallbreak for snow and setup sweepers while also allowing them to set up more easily. Life Orb can be run over Heavy-Duty Boots to give Nasty Plot Alolan Ninetales variants enough power to OHKO offensive Incineroar most of the time with +2 Moonblast.

Checks and Counters
====

**Steel-types**: Bronzong and Copperajah totally wall Alolan Ninetales, and Klefki has Thunder Wave to slow down Nasty Plot Alolan Ninetales. However, all Steel-types must be wary of Encore from support sets and Tera Blast Fire, Ground, and, in Bronzong's case, Ghost from Nasty Plot variants.

**Fire-types**: Incineroar and Paldean Tauros-F threaten Alolan Ninetales offensively and can stomach its Ice-type attacks. Additionally, other Fire-types like Chandelure and Hisuian Typhlosion can completely wall Alolan Ninetales, tanking Moonblast as well as its Ice-type attacks. However, Paldean Tauros-F needs a Choice Scarf to outspeed Nasty Plot Alolan Ninetales so that it isn't OHKOed by its +2 Moonblast, and Tera Blast Ground can handle them all very easily.

**Special Walls**: Specially bulky Pokemon like Alolan Muk, Porygon2, and Diancie can tank boosted attacks from Alolan Ninetales and threaten it back with strong attacks or status.

[CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/missangelic.452572/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/powerofmemes.583607/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/hammer798.641404/
Grammar checked by:
 
Last edited:
this was quite a bit, so ping me when implemented just to check over
add remove comment
contact me if you want clarity / help like always
[OVERVIEW]

Snow Warning, great Speed, and a solid offensive typing distinguish Alolan Ninetales in roles as a support Pokemon and fast special attacker. (line on how it checks many threats and walls in nu like flygon, waterbull, milo, amoonguss)

(line on snow letting sweepers like beartic and alolaslash be threatening) Snow even enables Alolan Ninetales itself, granting it a Defense boost and a perfectly-accurate Blizzard (had three Zs in blizzard). (maybe add on how it’s a good tera user like you say later) Unfortunately, Alolan Ninetales is walled by prominent Steel-types like Registeel, Klefki, and Bronzong depending on its set and coverage, curtailing its own offensive presence. (add a line on how its commonly walled by fire types too)

(put a sentence about how its bulk is lacking even with snow to boost its defense)

(its sr weakness is quite detrimental, and this is especially painful on non-boots sets that dont even need to have their item knocked off)

[SET]
name: Aurora Veil Support
move 1: Aurora Veil
move 2: Blizzard / Freeze-Dry / Blizzard
move 3: Encore
move 4: Foul Play / Moonblast / Foul Play
item: Icy Rock / Heavy-Duty Boots
ability: Snow Warning
nature: Timid
evs: 252 HP / 4 SpA 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 Spe (better rocks switch-ins, but if you needed the 4 SpA for the rolls, you can put the 8 evs there)
tera type: Water

(freeze dry over blizzard, since setup sweepers more often have issues with beating bulky waters than fast mons)

[SET COMMENTS]
Set Details
====

Freeze-Dry is more threatening to prominent Water-types like Basculegion-M, Vaporeon, and Paldean Tauros-W. However, (AC) Blizzard hits more important KO thresholds, 2HKOing Cinccino, Amoonguss, and Toxtricity compared to Freeze-Dry. However, Freeze-Dry more threatening to prominent Water-types like Basculegion, Vaporeon, and Paldean Tauros-W. Encore helps Alolan Ninetales lock passive Pokemon like Registeel, Diancie, and Alolan Muk into status moves, creating easier turns for setting up Aurora Veil and enabling teammates. (explain why i’d use moonblast or foul play) Icy Rock is more beneficial to teammates that rely on snow like Beartic and Alolan Sandslash, while Heavy-Duty Boots increase Alolan Ninetales's longevity in the face of entry hazards so that it can switch and set up snow more freely. Tera Water flips Steel and Fire weaknesses into resistances, and it gives Alolan Ninetales a generally good defensive typing with few weaknesses.

Alolan Sandslash and Beartic benefit most directly from Alolan Ninetales setting snow, and both of them enjoy Aurora Veil creating safer turns to set up Swords Dance. Aurora Veil also benefits setup sweepers that prefer multiple turns to fully setup like Scyther, Toxtricity, Scream Tail, and Flygon, (AC) Paldean Tauros-F, and dual dance Porygon-Z. Cinccino can keep entry hazards out of the picture with Tidy Up so that Alolan Ninetales can run Icy Rock, and Cinccino itself benefits from Aurora Veil mitigating its meager bulk and defensive utility. Diancie, (AC) Basculegion, (AC) and Paldean Tauros-W can check Fire-types like Chandelure and Hisuian Typhlosion that threaten Alolan Ninetales. Additionally, the first one can set hazards as well. (talk about how weather ball kilo & raikou can capitalize on snow)

[SET]
name: Nasty Plot
move 1: Nasty Plot
move 2: Moonblast
move 3: Freeze-Dry / Blizzard / Encore
move 4: Tera Blast / Dark Pulse / Hex / Encore
item: Heavy-Duty Boots / Life Orb
ability: Snow Warning
nature: Timid
evs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe (me making sure snow defense boost is ever so optimized)
tera type: Ground / Fire / Ghost / Water

[SET COMMENTS]
Set Details
====

Alolan Ninetales can use Encore over Blizzard or its extra coverage move to facilitate itself as a setup sweeper by locking passive walls like Gastrodon, Porygon2, and Avalugg into useless status moves. (discuss freeze-dry / blizzard / encore here) Nasty Plot Alolan Ninetales greatly benefits from using Terastallilzation in conjunction with Tera Blast to surprise an overwhelm its checks. Tera Ground + Tera Blast beats Steel-types like Registeel, Fire-types like Chandelure and Incineroar, and Poison-types like Alolan Muk and Galarian Slowbro. In addition, Tera Ground protects Alolan Ninetales from Thunder Wave users like Klefki and Registeel, and it's a good defensive answer to Poison-type attacks from Alolan Muk and Munkidori Toxtricity (might just boomburst) while Alolan Ninetales sets up. Dark Pulse covers Bronzong and Chandelure, and it's Alolan Ninetales's strongest attack against Galarian Slowbro and Munkidori if it lacks Blizzard and Tera Blast. Tera Fire Blast is has similar offensive potency against Steel-types, and it's superior to Ground defensively against otherwise super effective Steel- and Fire-type attack, (AC) though it makes Alolan Ninetales weak into Fire-types. Tera Ghost powers up Hex or lets Alolan Ninetales use a Ghost-type Tera Blast to blow past Bronzong and Ghost-types like Chandelure and Hisuian Typhlosion. It also protects Alolan Ninetales from Cinccino as well as Speed-boosted Toxtricity and Porygon-Z for a critical turn, flips its Poison weakness against foes like Munkidori, and lets it take advantage of Body Press users like Avalugg, Bronzong, and Registeel. Dark Pulse covers Bronzong and Chandelure, and it's Alolan Ninetales's strongest attack against Galarian Slowbro and Munkidori if it lacks Blizzard (the set above says if you have d pulse, you’re not running tera blast. + moved to align with set order). Tera Water offers Alolan Ninetales a convenient defensive typing to deal with its usual Fire and Steel weaknesses, and it turns Tera Blast into an attack that pressures Diancie and Fire-types like Incineroar and Chandelure (typically tera water is purely defensive. i see the diancie argument but tera ground does the same, though with a debatably slightly worse defense typing). Life Orb can be run over Heavy-Duty Boots to give Alolan Ninetales enough power to OHKO offensive Incineroar 75% of the time with +2 Moonblast. (i know its on the dex but lorb isn’t good enough to warrant a set mention + taking rocks, put it in oo tho)

Alolan Ninetales makes for a good wallbreaker on offense and balance teams. Avalugg enjoys the Defense boost from snow, and just like Cramorant and Altaria it checks physical attackers like?, (AC) can chip Steel-types like Bronzong and Registeel, (AC) and keeps entry hazards off for Alolan Ninetales. Additionally, Altaria can run a Perish Trap set to clear bothersome Steel- and Fire-types for Alolan Ninetales. Other hazard removers like Cinccino similarly chip Steel-types and can give Alolan Ninetales the freedom to run Life Orb. Ground-types like Flygon, Gastrodon, and Gligar can check Alolan Muk and pressure Fire-types and Steel-types besides Bronzong. Porygon2 and Incineroar are is a solid defensive answers to Hisuian Typhlosion and (RC) Chandelure, and the former can check Choice Scarf Toxtricity, (AC) especially Choice Scarf variants, (AC) for Alolan Ninetales. Flygon, Fighting-types like Paldean Tauros-W, and Fire-types like Paldean Tauros-F can put the pressure on Steel-types like Klefki, Registeel, and Bronzong so that Alolan Ninetales can finish them off in the late-game.

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
====

Nasty Plot sets can consider Freeze-Dry instead of Blizzard or Encore to destroy defensive Water-types, but Moonblast already hits most of them hard, and Gastrodon and Swampert still take a hefty amount of damage from Blizzard. (deleting bulky waters is typically good for alolatales’s teammates, as it’s usually on more offensive teams) Choice Specs may seem appealing, as Blizzard and Moonblast are quite spammable, but Alolan Ninetales becomes very dependent on entry hazard control without the same payoff in power as other special wallbreakers like Chandelure, Toxtricity, and Porygon-Z have. A set of Aurora Veil / Nasty Plot / Moonblast / and one of Freeze-Dry, Blizzard, Tera Blast, or Dark Pulse can be used to wallbreak for snow and setup sweepers while also allowing them to set up more easily. (lo for np sets mention, if you want)

Checks and Counters
====

**Steel-types**: Registeel and Bronzong totally wall Alolan Ninetales, and Klefki has Thunder Wave to slow down Nasty Plot Alolan Ninetales. However, all Steel-types must be wary of Encore from support sets and Tera Blast Fire, Ground, and, in Bronzong's case, Ghost as well and super effective Tera Types from Nasty Plot variants. (since Tera types = typings, & typings themselves arent super effective, its probably better to list the types themselves)

**Fire-types**: Incineroar and Paldean Tauros-F threaten Alolan Ninetales offensively and can stomach its Ice-type attacks. Additionally, other Fire-types like Chandelure and Hisuian Typhlosion can completely wall Alolan Ninetales, tanking Moonblast as well as its Ice-type attacks. However, Paldean Tauros-F needs a Choice Scarf to outspeed Nasty Plot Alolan Ninetales so it isn't OHKOed by its +2 Moonblast, and Tera Blast Ground can handle them all very easily.

**Alolan Muk Special Walls**: Thanks to its substantial special bulk and super effective STAB Poison-type moves, Alolan Muk easily tanks even boosted attacks from Alolan Ninetales and hits it back hard. (talk abt how p2 + dia can tank np-boosted attacks and retaliate, also reword the muk part so it isnt entirely focused on it)

[CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/missangelic.452572/
Quality checked by:

Grammar checked by:
 
literally only 3 things said in the spoiler tag,
good job! qc 1/2
add comments
[OVERVIEW]

Snow Warning, great Speed, and a solid offensive typing distinguish Alolan Ninetales in roles as a support Pokemon and fast special attacker. Thanks to all these traits, Alolan Ninetales makes a great wallbreaker against Amoonguss and Vaporeon and a solid revenge killer against Flygon and Paldean Tauros-W. Snow helps Alolan Sandslash and Beartic to sweep, and Alolan Ninetales can lean into its snow-setting by using Aurora Veil to support other dangerous setup sweepers like Scyther and Toxtricity. Snow even enables Alolan Ninetales itself, granting it a Defense boost and a perfectly-accurate Blizzard. Alolan Ninetales is a good user of Terastallization to wallbreak more effectively, and it can quickly overwhelm supposed counterplay like Bronzong and Diancie. Unfortunately, Alolan Ninetales is walled by prominent Steel-types like Registeel, Klefki, and Bronzong depending on its set and coverage, curtailing its own offensive presence. Fire-types like Incineroar and Paldean Tauros-F are also troublesome for Alolan Ninetales, even if they don't resist Fairy. (mention chandy somewhere in the fire-type sentence) Despite snow mitigating Alolan Ninetales's poor Defense, physical attackers like Basculegion and Flamigo still hit Alolan Ninetales hard. Alolan Ninetales's Stealth Rock weakness makes its Heavy-Duty Boots sets vulnerable to Knock Off and disincentivizes running items besides Heavy-Duty Boots.

[SET]
name: Aurora Veil Support
move 1: Aurora Veil
move 2: Freeze-Dry / Blizzard
move 3: Encore
move 4: Moonblast / Foul Play
item: Icy Rock / Heavy-Duty Boots
ability: Snow Warning
nature: Timid
evs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 Spe
tera type: Water

[SET COMMENTS]
Set Details
====

Freeze-Dry is more threatening to prominent Water-types like Basculegion-M, Vaporeon, and Paldean Tauros-W. However, Blizzard hits more important KO thresholds, 2HKOing Cinccino, Amoonguss, and Toxtricity compared to Freeze-Dry. Encore helps Alolan Ninetales lock passive Pokemon like Registeel, Diancie, and Alolan Muk into status moves, creating easier turns for setting up Aurora Veil and enabling teammates. Foul Play can replace Moonblast to punish physical attackers like Basculegion and Tera Steel Flygon, but it lacks Moonblast's superior coverage against Incineroar, Paldean Tauros-F, and Scrafty. Moonblast is also more important as coverage against Paldean Tauros-W if Alolan Ninetales drops Freeze-Dry for Blizzard. Icy Rock is more beneficial to teammates that rely on snow like Beartic and Alolan Sandslash, while Heavy-Duty Boots increase Alolan Ninetales's longevity in the face of entry hazards so that it can switch and set up snow more freely. Tera Water flips Steel and Fire weaknesses into resistances, and it gives Alolan Ninetales a generally good defensive typing with few weaknesses.

Alolan Sandslash and Beartic benefit most directly from Alolan Ninetales setting snow, and both of them enjoy Aurora Veil creating safer turns to set up Swords Dance. Aurora Veil also benefits setup sweepers that prefer multiple turns to fully setup like Scyther, Toxtricity, Scream Tail, Flygon, Paldean Tauros-F, and dual dance Porygon-Z. Cinccino can keep entry hazards out of the picture with Tidy Up so that Alolan Ninetales can run Icy Rock, and Cinccino itself benefits from Aurora Veil mitigating its meager bulk and defensive utility. Diancie, Basculegion, and Paldean Tauros-W can check Fire-types like Chandelure and Hisuian Typhlosion that threaten Alolan Ninetales. Additionally, the first one can set hazards as well. Weather Ball users like Kilowattrel and Raikou can use snow set by Alolan Ninetales to benefit their coverage.

[SET]
name: Nasty Plot
move 1: Nasty Plot
move 2: Moonblast
move 3: Freeze-Dry / Blizzard / Encore
move 4: Tera Blast / Dark Pulse / Encore
item: Heavy-Duty Boots
ability: Snow Warning
nature: Timid
evs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
tera type: Ground / Fire / Ghost / Water

[SET COMMENTS]
Set Details
====

Alolan Ninetales can use Encore over Blizzard or its extra coverage move to facilitate itself as a setup sweeper by locking passive walls like Gastrodon, Porygon2, and Avalugg into useless status moves. Freeze-Dry's better matchups than Blizzard against bulky Water-types like Milotic and Vaporeon make Alolan Ninetales an even more devastating wallbreaker, but the greater power of Blizzard overwhelms special walls like Alolan Muk, Diancie, and Assault Vest Galarian Slowbro. (you should probably reorder this to match the set order [and reword as needed]) Nasty Plot Alolan Ninetales greatly benefits from using Terastallilzation in conjunction with Tera Blast to surprise an overwhelm its checks. Tera Ground + Tera Blast beats Steel-types like Registeel, Fire-types like Chandelure and Incineroar, and Poison-types like Alolan Muk and Galarian Slowbro. In addition, Tera Ground protects Alolan Ninetales from Thunder Wave users like Klefki and Registeel, and it's a good defensive answer to Poison-type attacks from Alolan Muk and Munkidori while Alolan Ninetales sets up. Tera Fire Blast has similar offensive potency against Steel-types, and it's superior to Ground defensively against otherwise super effective Steel- and Fire-type attack, though it makes Alolan Ninetales weak into Fire-types. Tera Ghost lets Alolan Ninetales use a Ghost-type Tera Blast to blow past Bronzong and Ghost-types like Chandelure and Hisuian Typhlosion. It also protects Alolan Ninetales from Cinccino as well as Speed-boosted Toxtricity and Porygon-Z for a critical turn, flips its Poison weakness against foes like Munkidori, and lets it take advantage of Body Press users like Avalugg, Bronzong, and Registeel. Dark Pulse covers Bronzong and Chandelure, and it's Alolan Ninetales's strongest attack against Galarian Slowbro and Munkidori if it lacks Blizzard. Tera Water offers Alolan Ninetales a convenient defensive typing to deal with its usual Fire and Steel weaknesses.

Alolan Ninetales makes for a good wallbreaker on offense and balance teams. Avalugg enjoys the Defense boost from snow, and just like Cramorant and Altaria it checks physical attackers like Flygon, Paldean Tauros-W, Infernape, (AC) Scyther, it can chip Steel-types like Bronzong and Registeel, and keeps entry hazards off for Alolan Ninetales. Additionally, Altaria can run a Perish Trap set to clear bothersome Steel- and Fire-types for Alolan Ninetales. Other hazard removers like Cinccino similarly chip Steel-types and can give Alolan Ninetales the freedom to run Life Orb. Ground-types like Flygon, Gastrodon, and Gligar can check Alolan Muk and pressure Fire-types and Steel-types besides Bronzong. Porygon2 and Incineroar are solid defensive answers to Hisuian Typhlosion and Chandelure, and the former can check Toxtricity, especially Choice Scarf variants, for Alolan Ninetales. Flygon, Fighting-types like Paldean Tauros-W, and Fire-types like Paldean Tauros-F can put the pressure on Steel-types like Klefki, Registeel, and Bronzong so that Alolan Ninetales can finish them off in the late-game.

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
====

Choice Specs may seem appealing, as Blizzard and Moonblast are quite spammable, but Alolan Ninetales becomes very dependent on entry hazard control without the same payoff in power as other special wallbreakers like Chandelure, Toxtricity, and Porygon-Z have. A set of Aurora Veil / Nasty Plot / Moonblast / and one of Freeze-Dry, Blizzard, Tera Blast, or Dark Pulse can be used to wallbreak for snow and setup sweepers while also allowing them to set up more easily. Life Orb can be run over Heavy-Duty Boots to give Nasty Plot Alolan Ninetales variants enough power to OHKO offensive Incineroar 75% of the time with +2 Moonblast.

Checks and Counters
====

**Steel-types**: Registeel and Bronzong totally wall Alolan Ninetales, and Klefki has Thunder Wave to slow down Nasty Plot Alolan Ninetales. However, all Steel-types must be wary of Encore from support sets and Tera Blast Fire, Ground, and, in Bronzong's case, Ghost as well from Nasty Plot variants.

**Fire-types**: Incineroar and Paldean Tauros-F threaten Alolan Ninetales offensively and can stomach its Ice-type attacks. Additionally, other Fire-types like Chandelure and Hisuian Typhlosion can completely wall Alolan Ninetales, tanking Moonblast as well as its Ice-type attacks. However, Paldean Tauros-F needs a Choice Scarf to outspeed Nasty Plot Alolan Ninetales so it isn't OHKOed by its +2 Moonblast, and Tera Blast Ground can handle them all very easily.

**Special Walls**: Specially bulky Pokemon like Alolan Muk, Porygon2, and Diancie can tank boosted attacks from Alolan Ninetales and threaten it back.

[CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/missangelic.452572/
Quality checked by:

Grammar checked by:
 
Forgot to say, ready for QC2

Edit: I've updated this to be kosher with Registeel's rise (RIP)
 
Last edited:
not a ton here, great work, qc 2/2
add remove comment
[OVERVIEW]

Snow Warning, great Speed, and a solid offensive typing distinguish Alolan Ninetales in roles as a support Pokemon and fast special attacker. Thanks to all these traits, Alolan Ninetales makes a great wallbreaker against Amoonguss and Vaporeon and a solid revenge killer against Flygon and Paldean Tauros-W. Snow helps Alolan Sandslash and Beartic to sweep, and Alolan Ninetales can lean into its snow-setting by using Aurora Veil to support other dangerous setup sweepers like Scyther and Toxtricity. Snow even enables Alolan Ninetales itself, granting it a Defense boost and a perfectly-accurate Blizzard. Alolan Ninetales is a good user of Terastallization to wallbreak more effectively, and it can quickly overwhelm supposed counterplay like Bronzong and Diancie. Unfortunately, Alolan Ninetales is walled by prominent Steel-types like Klefki, Bronzong, and Copperajah depending on its set and coverage, curtailing its own offensive presence. Fire-types like Chandelure, Incineroar, and Paldean Tauros-F are also troublesome for Alolan Ninetales, even if some of them don't resist Fairy. Despite snow mitigating Alolan Ninetales's poor Defense, physical attackers like Basculegion and Flamigo still hit Alolan Ninetales hard. Alolan Ninetales's Stealth Rock weakness makes its Heavy-Duty Boots sets vulnerable to Knock Off and disincentivizes running items besides Heavy-Duty Boots.

[SET]
name: Aurora Veil Support
move 1: Aurora Veil
move 2: Freeze-Dry / Blizzard
move 3: Encore
move 4: Moonblast / Foul Play
item: Icy Rock / Heavy-Duty Boots
ability: Snow Warning
nature: Timid
evs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 Spe
tera type: Water

[SET COMMENTS]
Set Details
====

Freeze-Dry is more threatening to prominent Water-types like Basculegion-M, Vaporeon, and Paldean Tauros-W. However, Blizzard hits more important KO thresholds, 2HKOing Cinccino, Amoonguss, and Toxtricity compared to Freeze-Dry. Encore helps Alolan Ninetales lock passive Pokemon like Diancie and Alolan Muk into status moves, creating easier turns for setting up Aurora Veil and enabling teammates. Foul Play can replace Moonblast to punish physical attackers like Basculegion and Tera Steel Flygon, also lets you actual hit steels like zong but it lacks Moonblast's superior coverage against Incineroar, Paldean Tauros-F, and Scrafty. Moonblast is also more important as coverage against Paldean Tauros-W if Alolan Ninetales drops Freeze-Dry for Blizzard. Icy Rock is more beneficial to teammates that rely on snow like Beartic and Alolan Sandslash, while Heavy-Duty Boots increase Alolan Ninetales's longevity in the face of entry hazards so that it can switch and set up snow more freely. Tera Water flips Steel and Fire weaknesses into resistances, and it gives Alolan Ninetales a generally good defensive typing with few weaknesses.

Alolan Sandslash and Beartic benefit most directly from Alolan Ninetales setting snow, and both of them enjoy Aurora Veil creating safer turns to set up Swords Dance. Aurora Veil also benefits setup sweepers that prefer multiple turns to fully setup like Scyther, Toxtricity, Scream Tail, Flygon, Paldean Tauros-F, and dual dance Porygon-Z. Cinccino can keep entry hazards out of the picture with Tidy Up so that Alolan Ninetales can run Icy Rock, and Cinccino itself benefits from Aurora Veil mitigating its meager bulk and defensive utility. Diancie, Basculegion, and Paldean Tauros-W can check Fire-types like Chandelure and Hisuian Typhlosion that threaten Alolan Ninetales. Additionally, the first one can set hazards as well. Weather Ball users like Kilowattrel and Raikou can use snow set by Alolan Ninetales to benefit their coverage. add a sentence about regenerator eject button users like glowbro and amoonguss for easy pivots to your sweepers

[SET]
name: Nasty Plot
move 1: Nasty Plot
move 2: Moonblast
move 3: Freeze-Dry / Blizzard / Encore
move 4: Tera Blast / Dark Pulse / Encore
item: Heavy-Duty Boots
ability: Snow Warning
nature: Timid
evs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
tera type: Ground / Fire / Ghost / Water

[SET COMMENTS]
Set Details
====

Freeze-Dry's better matchups than Blizzard against bulky Water-types like Milotic and Vaporeon make Alolan Ninetales an even more devastating wallbreaker, but the greater power of Blizzard overwhelms special walls like Alolan Muk, Diancie, and Assault Vest Galarian Slowbro. Alolan Ninetales can use Encore over an Ice-type STAB or coverage move to facilitate itself as a setup sweeper by locking passive walls like Gastrodon, Porygon2, and Avalugg into useless status moves. Nasty Plot Alolan Ninetales greatly benefits from using Terastallilzation in conjunction with Tera Blast to surprise and overwhelm its checks. Tera Ground + Tera Blast simplify to Tera Blast Ground beats Steel-types like Copperajah, Fire-types like Chandelure and Incineroar, and Poison-types like Alolan Muk and Galarian Slowbro. In addition, Tera Ground protects Alolan Ninetales from Thunder Wave users like Klefki and Registeel Porygon2, and it's a good defensive answer to Poison-type attacks from Alolan Muk and Munkidori while Alolan Ninetales sets up. Tera Fire Blast Fire has similar offensive potency against Steel-types, and it's superior to Ground defensively against otherwise super effective Steel- and Fire-type attacks, though it makes Alolan Ninetales weak into Fire-types. Tera Ghost lets Alolan Ninetales use a Ghost-type Tera Blast to blow past Bronzong and Ghost-types like Chandelure and Hisuian Typhlosion. It also protects Alolan Ninetales from Cinccino as well as Speed-boosted Toxtricity and Porygon-Z for a critical turn, flips its Poison weakness against foes like Munkidori, and lets it take advantage of Body Press users like Avalugg, Bronzong, and Registeel. Dark Pulse covers Bronzong and Chandelure, and it's Alolan Ninetales's strongest attack against Galarian Slowbro and Munkidori if it lacks Blizzard. Tera Water offers Alolan Ninetales a convenient defensive typing to deal with its usual Fire and Steel weaknesses.

Alolan Ninetales makes for a good wallbreaker on offense and balance teams. Avalugg enjoys the Defense boost from snow, and just like along with walls like 'just like' sounds like you were already talking about them Cramorant and Altaria it checks physical attackers like Flygon, Paldean Tauros-W, Infernape, and Scyther. Avalugg can also chip Steel-types like Bronzong and Copperajah and keep entry hazards off for Alolan Ninetales. Additionally, Altaria can run a Perish Trap set to clear bothersome Steel- and Fire-types for Alolan Ninetales. Other hazard removers like Cinccino similarly chip Steel-types and can give Alolan Ninetales the freedom to run Life Orb. Ground-types like Flygon, Gastrodon, and Gligar can check Alolan Muk and pressure Fire-types and Steel-types besides Bronzong. Porygon2 and Incineroar are solid defensive answers to Hisuian Typhlosion and Chandelure, and the former can check Toxtricity, especially Choice Scarf variants, for Alolan Ninetales. Flygon, Fighting-types like Paldean Tauros-W, and Fire-types like Paldean Tauros-F can put the pressure on Steel-types like Klefki, Registeel, and Bronzong so that Alolan Ninetales can finish them off in the late-game.

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
====

Choice Specs may seem appealing, as Blizzard and Moonblast are quite spammable, but Alolan Ninetales becomes very dependent on entry hazard control without the same payoff in power as other special wallbreakers like Chandelure, Toxtricity, and Porygon-Z have. A set of Aurora Veil / Nasty Plot / Moonblast / and one of Freeze-Dry, Blizzard, Tera Blast, or Dark Pulse can be used to wallbreak for snow and setup sweepers while also allowing them to set up more easily. Life Orb can be run over Heavy-Duty Boots to give Nasty Plot Alolan Ninetales variants enough power to OHKO offensive Incineroar 75% of the time with +2 Moonblast.

Checks and Counters
====

**Steel-types**: Bronzong and Copperajah totally wall Alolan Ninetales, and Klefki has Thunder Wave to slow down Nasty Plot Alolan Ninetales. However, all Steel-types must be wary of Encore from support sets and Tera Blast Fire, Ground, and, in Bronzong's case, Ghost as well from Nasty Plot variants.

**Fire-types**: Incineroar and Paldean Tauros-F threaten Alolan Ninetales offensively and can stomach its Ice-type attacks. Additionally, other Fire-types like Chandelure and Hisuian Typhlosion can completely wall Alolan Ninetales, tanking Moonblast as well as its Ice-type attacks. However, Paldean Tauros-F needs a Choice Scarf to outspeed Nasty Plot Alolan Ninetales so it isn't OHKOed by its +2 Moonblast, and Tera Blast Ground can handle them all very easily.

**Special Walls**: Specially bulky Pokemon like Alolan Muk, Porygon2, and Diancie can tank boosted attacks from Alolan Ninetales and threaten it back.

[CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/missangelic.452572/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/powerofmemes.583607/

Grammar checked by:
 
GP Team done

add remove highlight comment

[OVERVIEW]

Snow Warning, great Speed, and a solid offensive typing distinguish Alolan Ninetales in roles as a support Pokemon and fast special attacker. Thanks to all these traits, Alolan Ninetales makes a great wallbreaker against Amoonguss and Vaporeon and a solid revenge killer against Flygon and Paldean Tauros-W. Snow helps Alolan Sandslash and Beartic to sweep, and Alolan Ninetales can lean into its snow-setting snow setting by using Aurora Veil to support other dangerous setup sweepers like Scyther and Toxtricity. Snow even enables Alolan Ninetales itself, granting it a Defense boost and a perfectly-accurate perfectly accurate Blizzard. Alolan Ninetales is a good user of Terastallization to wallbreak more effectively, and it can quickly overwhelm supposed counterplay like Bronzong and Diancie. Unfortunately, Alolan Ninetales is walled by prominent Steel-types like Klefki, Bronzong, and Copperajah depending on its set and coverage, curtailing its own offensive presence. Fire-types like Chandelure, Incineroar, and Paldean Tauros-F are also troublesome for Alolan Ninetales, even if some of them don't resist Fairy. Despite snow mitigating Alolan Ninetales's poor Defense, physical attackers like Basculegion Basculegion-M and Flamigo still hit Alolan Ninetales hard. Alolan Ninetales's Stealth Rock weakness makes its Heavy-Duty Boots sets vulnerable to Knock Off and disincentivizes running items besides Heavy-Duty Boots.

[SET]
name: Aurora Veil Support
move 1: Aurora Veil
move 2: Freeze-Dry / Blizzard
move 3: Encore
move 4: Moonblast / Foul Play
item: Icy Rock / Heavy-Duty Boots
ability: Snow Warning
nature: Timid
evs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 Spe
tera type: Water

[SET COMMENTS]
Set Details
====

Freeze-Dry is more threatening to prominent Water-types like Basculegion-M, Vaporeon, and Paldean Tauros-W. However, Blizzard hits more important KO thresholds, 2HKOing Cinccino, Amoonguss, and Toxtricity. Encore helps Alolan Ninetales lock passive Pokemon like Diancie and Alolan Muk into status moves, creating easier turns for setting up Aurora Veil. Foul Play can replace Moonblast to punish physical attackers like Basculegion Basculegion-M, Steel-types, and Tera Steel Flygon, but it lacks Moonblast's superior coverage against Incineroar, Paldean Tauros-F, and Scrafty. Moonblast is also more important as coverage against Paldean Tauros-W if Alolan Ninetales drops Freeze-Dry for Blizzard. Icy Rock is more beneficial to teammates that rely on snow like Beartic and Alolan Sandslash, while Heavy-Duty Boots increase Alolan Ninetales's longevity in the face of entry hazards so that it can switch and set up snow more freely. Tera Water flips the Steel and Fire weaknesses into resistances, (I suggest listing out relevant Pokemon where Tera Steel is beneficial against.) and it gives Alolan Ninetales a generally good defensive typing with few weaknesses.

Alolan Sandslash and Beartic benefit most directly from Alolan Ninetales setting snow, and both of them enjoy Aurora Veil creating safer turns to set up Swords Dance. Aurora Veil also benefits setup sweepers that prefer multiple turns to fully setup set up like Scyther, Toxtricity, Scream Tail, Flygon, Paldean Tauros-F, and dual Double Dance Porygon-Z. Cinccino can keep entry hazards out of the picture with Tidy Up so that Alolan Ninetales can run Icy Rock, and Cinccino itself benefits from Aurora Veil mitigating its meager bulk and defensive utility. Diancie, Basculegion Basculegion-M, and Paldean Tauros-W can check Fire-types like Chandelure and Hisuian Typhlosion that threaten Alolan Ninetales. Additionally, the first one can set hazards as well. Weather Ball users like Kilowattrel and Raikou can use snow set by Alolan Ninetales to benefit their coverage. Eject Button users like Galarian Slowbro and Amoonguss help Alolan Ninetales's teammates come onto the field safely to best take advantage of Alolan Ninetales's Aurora Veil.

[SET]
name: Nasty Plot
move 1: Nasty Plot
move 2: Moonblast
move 3: Freeze-Dry / Blizzard / Encore
move 4: Tera Blast / Dark Pulse / Encore
item: Heavy-Duty Boots
ability: Snow Warning
nature: Timid
evs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
tera type: Ground / Fire / Ghost / Water

[SET COMMENTS]
Set Details
====

Freeze-Dry's better matchups than Blizzard (I'm not sure if "matchups" can be used this way, maybe replace this with "effectiveness"?) against bulky Water-types like Milotic and Vaporeon make Alolan Ninetales an even more devastating wallbreaker than Blizzard would, but the greater power of Blizzard overwhelms special walls like Alolan Muk, Diancie, and Assault Vest Galarian Slowbro. Alolan Ninetales can use Encore over an Ice-type STAB or coverage move to facilitate itself as a setup sweeper by locking passive walls like Gastrodon, Porygon2, and Avalugg into useless status moves. Nasty Plot Alolan Ninetales greatly benefits from using Terastallilzation in conjunction with Tera Blast to surprise and overwhelm its checks. Tera Blast Ground beats Steel-types like Copperajah, Fire-types like Chandelure and Incineroar, and Poison-types like Alolan Muk and Galarian Slowbro. In addition, Tera Ground protects Alolan Ninetales from Thunder Wave users like Klefki and Porygon2, and it's a good defensive answer to Poison-type attacks from Alolan Muk and Munkidori while Alolan Ninetales sets up. Tera Blast Fire has similar offensive potency against Steel-types, and it's superior to Ground defensively against otherwise super effective Steel- and Fire-type attacks, though it makes Alolan Ninetales weak into against Fire-types. (How so? Do you mean offensively weak?) Tera Ghost lets Alolan Ninetales use a Ghost-type Tera Blast to blow past Bronzong and Ghost-types like Chandelure and Hisuian Typhlosion. It also protects Alolan Ninetales from Cinccino as well as Speed-boosted Toxtricity and Porygon-Z for a critical turn, flips its Poison weakness against foes like Munkidori, and lets it take advantage of Body Press users like Avalugg and Bronzong. Dark Pulse covers Bronzong and Chandelure, and it's Alolan Ninetales's strongest attack against Galarian Slowbro and Munkidori if it lacks Blizzard. Tera Water offers Alolan Ninetales a convenient defensive typing to deal with its usual Fire and Steel weaknesses.

Alolan Ninetales makes for a good wallbreaker on offense and balance teams. Avalugg enjoys the Defense boost from snow, and along with walls like Cramorant and Altaria, (AC) it checks physical attackers like Flygon, Paldean Tauros-W, Infernape, and Scyther. Avalugg can also chip Steel-types like Bronzong and Copperajah and keep entry hazards off for Alolan Ninetales. Additionally, Altaria can run a Perish trap set to clear bothersome Steel- and Fire-types for Alolan Ninetales. Other hazard removers like Cinccino similarly chip Steel-types and can give Alolan Ninetales the freedom to run Life Orb. Ground-types like Flygon, Gastrodon, and Gligar can check Alolan Muk and pressure Fire-types and Steel-types besides Bronzong. Porygon2 and Incineroar are solid defensive answers to Hisuian Typhlosion and Chandelure, and the former can check Toxtricity, especially Choice Scarf variants, for Alolan Ninetales. Flygon, Fighting-types like Paldean Tauros-W, and Fire-types like Paldean Tauros-F can put the pressure on Steel-types like Klefki, Copperajah, and Bronzong so that Alolan Ninetales can finish them off in the late-game.

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
====

Choice Specs may seem appealing, as Blizzard and Moonblast are quite spammable, but Alolan Ninetales becomes very dependent on entry hazard control without the same payoff in power as other special wallbreakers like Chandelure, Toxtricity, and Porygon-Z have. A set of Aurora Veil / Nasty Plot / Moonblast / and with one of Freeze-Dry, Blizzard, Tera Blast, or Dark Pulse can be used to wallbreak for snow and setup sweepers while also allowing them to set up more easily. Life Orb can be run over Heavy-Duty Boots to give Nasty Plot Alolan Ninetales variants enough power to OHKO offensive Incineroar 75% most of the time with +2 Moonblast.

Checks and Counters
====

**Steel-types**: Bronzong and Copperajah totally wall Alolan Ninetales, and Klefki has Thunder Wave to slow down Nasty Plot Alolan Ninetales. However, all Steel-types must be wary of Encore from support sets and Tera Blast Fire, Ground, and, in Bronzong's case, Ghost as well from Nasty Plot variants.

**Fire-types**: Incineroar and Paldean Tauros-F threaten Alolan Ninetales offensively and can stomach its Ice-type attacks. Additionally, other Fire-types like Chandelure and Hisuian Typhlosion can completely wall Alolan Ninetales, tanking Moonblast as well as its Ice-type attacks. However, Paldean Tauros-F needs a Choice Scarf to outspeed Nasty Plot Alolan Ninetales so that it isn't OHKOed by its +2 Moonblast, and Tera Blast Ground can handle them all very easily.

**Special Walls**: Specially bulky Pokemon like Alolan Muk, Porygon2, and Diancie can tank boosted attacks from Alolan Ninetales and threaten it back. (In what ways?)

[CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/missangelic.452572/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/powerofmemes.583607/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/hammer798.641404/
Grammar checked by:

I'd like to take a quick look at this again once this is implemented.

GP Check 1/1

a-blue-banana-gif.645975
 
GP Team done

one more change then it's good to go

Freeze-Dry's better effectiveness against bulky Water-types like Milotic and Vaporeon make makes Alolan Ninetales an even more devastating wallbreaker than Blizzard would, but the greater power of Blizzard overwhelms special walls like Alolan Muk, Diancie, and Assault Vest Galarian Slowbro.
 
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