Alolan Ninetales (Singles) (QC 0/2)

Theorymon

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So Elegant

[OVERVIEW]

* Alolan Ninetales has access to Snow Warning and Aurora Veil, making it one of the most effective "dual screen" setters in the metagame.

* Weak Special Attack is made up for in Blizzard, letting it deal good damage to neutral hits such as Celesteela.

* While its typing is poor defensively, it does have a valuable immunity to Dragon-type attacks, and isn't weak to Fighting-type moves.

* Fairly frail and easy to OHKO with physical attackers.

* Low Special Attack stat forces Alolan Ninetales to stay in a supportive role.

* Alolan Ninetale's high speed can actually be a problem early game, since slower weather setters can get rid of the hail, making Alolan Ninetales a deadweight while leading against them.

[SET]
name: Aurora Veil Setter
move 1: Aurora Veil
move 2: Blizzard
move 3: Encore / Moonblast / Sheer Cold
move 4: Freeze Dry / Moonblast / Sheer Cold
item: Focus Sash / Light Clay
ability: Snow Warning
nature: Timid
evs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========

* Aurora Veil is the main point of this set, having the same affect as setting up Reflect and Light Screen at the same time.

* Blizzard is Alolan Ninetales's most powerful offensive move, always hitting when Hail is up.

* Freeze Dry lets Alolan Ninetales hit Water-types harder. Most notably, it OHKOs Pelipper and Gyarados, and 2HKOs Azumarill and Primarina (factoring in Hail damage)

* Moonblast is a good secondary STAB for Dark- and Fighting-types, 2HKOing Mega Gyarados in particular.

* Encore is a great support move, letting Alolan Ninetales punish Pokemon that attempt to set up on it.'

* Although very risky, Sheer Cold can be used as a last ditch effort to make Alolan Ninetales useful, having a 30% shot of OHKOing any Pokemon that lacks Sturdy or an Ice-type.

Set Details
========

* Maximum Speed is important for setting up Aurora Veil, while maximum Special Attack lets Alolan Ninetales at least deal some damage.

* Focus Sash ensures that Alolan Ninetales will set up Aurora Veil in almost all situations. It also lets Alolan Ninetales potentially pick off Pokemon later in the match without fear of being unable to switch in against the likes of Garchomp.

* Light Clay isn't as safe of an item as Focus Sash, but it lets Aurora Veil last for eight turns instead of five, which is especially valuable for sweepers.

Usage Tips
========

* If using Focus Sash, Alolan Ninetales doesn't have to set up Aurora Veil right away. If the foe has no priority and is slower, you can attack first, then use Aurora Veil. This way, it stays up a bit longer.

* For Light Clay users, Alolan Ninetales should set up as soon as possible, since it doesn't have very good bulk. If the foe is using a faster Pokemon that can OHKO, you may want to switch out and save it for later.

* While leading with Alolan Ninetales is fine, its also acceptable to save it for later, since it can revenge kill important Pokemon such as Garchomp, and with a Focus Sash, Pokemon such as Mega Salamence and Choice Scarf Landorus-T.

*Against stall teams, consider benching Alolan Ninetales, since it doesn't do very well against them due to its low offensive power.

Team Options
========

* Pairing Alolan Ninetales with sweepers is a much, since it justifies the entire point of using it. Good examples include Mega Salamence, Mega Blaziken, Mega Gyarados, Garchomp, and Volcarona.

* Alolan Ninetales is extremely vulnerable to Steel-types, especially Mega Metagross and Mega Scizor due to their STAB Bullet Punch. Offensive Fire-types usually pair the best with Alolan Ninetales. Blaziken and Mega Blaziken are execllent choices, fully taking advantage of Aurora Veil and using Speed Boost to outspeed even Mega Metagross. Volcarona works well since it can set up Quiver Dance under Aurora Veil. Mega Charizard Y threatens a lot of the slower Steel-types, and even sets up the sun so Alolan Ninetales can reset its weather later. Heatran is also a good choice, though it loses to Mega Metagross with Earthquake.

* Alolan Sandslash may seem like a tempting teammate due to Slush Rush, but since it does so poorly outside of Hail, it isn't a good fit on most teams.


[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============

* Alolan Ninetales gets set-up options in Nasty Plot, Calm Mind, and Z-Celebrate, but for the former, Alolan Ninetales is too frail to set it up easily, and for the later two, Alolan Ninetales is too weak to take advantage of them.

* Hypnosis is a risky option for shutting down checks.

* The Speed drop from Icy Wind can help with revenge killers after Alolan Ninetales goes down.

* Hidden Power Fire can be used to hit Ferrothorn and Mega Scizor hard, but otherwise, its too weak to do much to other Steel-types.

* Ice Shard is pretty weak, but can be used to pick off fast, weakened Pokemon that are 4x weak to it.

* Roar can be used to stop bulky set up sweepers or stop Trick Room from going up, but Alolan Ninetales doesn't have the bulk to use it effectively otherwise.

* Icy Rock increases the length of Hail. However, Alolan Ninetales is used much more for its ability to set up Aurora Veil than set up Hail, so this usually isn't a very good option.

Checks and Counters
===================

**Slower Weather Setters**: If a weather setter switches in or leads, Aurora Veil fails. Tyranitar, Mega Charizard Y, Torkoal, and Gigalith are the biggest problems since they can OHKO Alolan Ninetales, but well played Hippowdon, Pelipper, and Politoed can cause issues as well.

**Steel-types**: Alolan Ninetales is helpless against Steel-types due to its 4x weakness and them resisting its entire movepool. Mega Metagross and Mega Scizor are the most dangerous examples due to Bullet Punch, but any reasonable bulky Steel-type can defeat it otherwise.

**Fire-types: Most Fire-types have no issues taking on Alolan Ninetales as well. Common examples include Mega Charizard X, Blaziken, Heatran, Volcarona, and Rotom-H.

**Brick Break and Psychic Fangs**: Although uncommon, these moves will break Aurora Veil.
 
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I think Icy Rock deserves some mention - it may be the preferred item when used in conjunction with Sandslash-A. From the replays I've seen, Sandslash only needs Aurora Veil for a couple of turns to set up Swords Dance, and then appreciates the extra long hail to sweep the opposing team. Maybe this can be included under Other Options?
 
In most cases, even if you're running Sandy-A with Ninetales-A you're not going to want to use it as your primary sweeper. Sandslash's primary utility, in my eyes, is that it resists and returns hard hits on things that dragons are weak to and Ninetales has very good synergy with most of the dragons, particularly Salamence but also Garchomp, Hydreigon and even the rare Haxorus. Sandslash is a way to complete the FDS core, but one that is going to be very vulnerable to counter weather as it becomes a thing.

Its already kind of hinted at but Ninetales can annihilate a lot of common rain team members with freeze dry, and since sun/sand aren't really viable atm it makes Ninetales hails strats a bit artificially strong. Have to watch out for M-Scizor/M-Metagross though.
 

Theorymon

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Sorry for the long wait, finally got this thing ready for QC checks!

I did mention Alolan Sandslash in teammates, but I don't think it's actually that good of a Pokemon, so I only gave it a small mention otherwise (same for Icy Rock, but in Other Options).
 

bobochan

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OVERVIEW
Try to combine the two sentences that talk about the below average SpA stat if possible, having both is redundant. You can also mention Encore when talking about its role as a support. It also sits at a nice Speed tier which lets it outspeed key threats like Garchomp and beat every single variant (with hail damage factored in).

Team Options
I feel the sweeper part can be broken down a bit more or expanded further. Like how Mega Gyarados/Salamence can set up on most of the stuff that takes out Alolan Ninetales. Garchomp is also decent vs Fire-, Steel-types, and forms a solid SFD core along with Scizor or Aegislash (a successful Encore let's either of the members in the core an opportunity to sweep). In order for Extreme Evoboost chains to function well (or at all), it's crucial that they have a good screener, normally this slot is either Klefki or Alolan Ninetales.

1/3
 
Obviously not a QC but I have a few comments to make!
* Alolan Ninetales has access to Snow Warning and Aurora Veil, making it one of the most effective "dual screen" setters in the metagame.
^ Probably worth mentioning that residual damage from Hail breaks opposing Focus Sash pokemon, notably stuff like Tapu Koko / Garchomp.
* For Light Clay users, Alolan Ninetales should set up as soon as possible, since it doesn't have very goo bulk.
^ No analysis comment here but change goo to good lol.
* Pairing Alolan Ninetales with sweepers is a much, since it justifies the entire point of using it. Good examples include Mega Gyarados, Mega Salamence, Garchomp, Mega Scizor, and Cloyster.
^ Again, no analysis comment but I think much is meant to be must.
* Alolan Ninetales is extremely vulnerable to Steel-types, especially Mega Metagross and Mega Scizor due to their STAB Bullet Punch. Arcanine deals with most Steel-types very well, though watch out for Earthquake from Mega Metagross. Under Aurora Veil, your own Mega Scizor will do very well against Mega Metagross. If using Light Clay, Celesteela works well against Mega Metagross, though Celesteela doesn't take advantage of Aurora Veil as well without an unusual offensive set.
^ The comment about Bullet Punch doesn't really apply to Mega-Metagross imo, since its base speed is actually more than Alolan-Nintails' by one point. Might be worth saying "Steel-type STAB" over "STAB Bullet Punch". Not every Mega-Metagross has Bullet Punch either, and it's likely to only decrease in popularity after Pokebank when it gains access to Thunder Punch and Ice Punch.
* Icy Rock increases the length of Hail. However, Alolan Ninetales is used much more for its ability to set up Aurora Veil than set up Hail, so this usually isn't a very good option.
^ Maybe mention that it isn't a good option outside of Slush Rush abusers rather than leaving it with no real positive aspects to look at.
**Steel-types**: Alolan Ninetales is helpless against Steel-types due to its 4x weakness and them resisting its entire movepool. Mega Metagross and Mega Scizor are the most dangerous examples due to Bullet Punch.
^ Similar to before, Mega-Metagross is faster than Alolan-Ninetails and is much more compelled to use Meteor Mash.
Checks and Counters
^ Might be worth adding in the occasional fast Taunt lead, primarily Tapu Koko.
 

Theorymon

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This hasn't been touched in eons (because Alolan Ninetales isn't really that high priority), but I looked this over and realized it didn't need THAT many changes, so I updated it to the current metagame. This is ready for some new checks!
 
I'm not in QC team but I have many things to say about this.

First of all, I think a different set should be used:

name: Aurora Veil Setter
move 1: Aurora Veil
move 2: Encore
move 3: Icy Wind
move 4: Sheer Cold
item: Light Clay / Focus Sash
ability: Snow Warning
nature: Timid
evs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe

Alolan Ninetales cannot afford to carry many attacking moves and will remain relatively passive even with Blizzard and offensive investment. This makes me firmly believe max HP investment is better, as this allows Alolan Ninetales to always survive Choice Scarf Modest Tapu Lele's Psychic, Choice Specs Tapu Koko's Thunderbolt, and +1 Mega Gyarados' Waterfall, while having decent chance to avoid OHKO from Jolly Landorus-T's Stone Edge.

This leads to an explanation of why Icy Wind should be the only attacking move here. Icy Wind lets Alolan Ninetales slow stuff like Tapu Koko and set Aurora Veil reliably. Icy Wind is also useful against Mega Gyarados, as it will not gain any Speed on the turn where it presses DD and gets hit by Icy Wind, and it will be locked into DD as while Alolan Ninetales can safely set the veil. Freeze-Dry isn't really enough to stop Mega Gyarados from setting up and OHKOing Alolan Ninetales the following turn. Icy Wind is also useful against faster foes like Mega Gengar which OHKO you, as you can live survive a hit with Focus Sash, slow whomever your foe is, and set Aurora Veil before you faint.

I think Sheer Cold shouldn't be slashed. It is far from being optional when Alolan Ninetales simply lacks an offensive presence to deal with the most common bulky foes in the metagame and majority of them are capable of stalling out Aurora Veil turns by intentionally using weaker attacks (e.g. Porygon2 spamming Discharge which is risky for a switch-in).

* Pairing Alolan Ninetales with sweepers is a much
Did you mean to say 'is a must'?

Imo, Team Options should cover far more option than what you have mentioned in far more detail. Gyarados fits well with Ninetales because it checks Mega Scizor and Mega Lucario and can afford to carry Taunt or Substitute thanks to Aurora Veil easnig setup and lessening the necessecity to carry another coverage move. Mega Mawile should be mentioned as Alolan Ninetales has very unfravorable matchup against Trick Room leads, and Mega Mawile can alleviate this issue while taking advantage of Tyranitar leads. Fire-types are already mentioned so I suppose that is fine. I would add a bullet point about what can specifically take advantage of Bullet Punch users and can deal with Mega Gengar lead.
 

Theorymon

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Yeah to be clear this analysis is massively out of date, so the moveset isn't staying the same. However, I was actually somewhat considering splitting this into two sets: The set you listed above (its probably the best set for actually setting up aurora veil), and a more offensive twist to it. You'll notice that a lot of Alolan Ninetales still use Blizzard and Moonblast in usage stats. While usage stats aren't everything (especially for more obscure Pokemon like this), I find that for teams that are less focused on the veil set up, maximum SpA Blizzard chunks stuff just enough to create openings, doing over 50% to a lot of important offensive Pokemon like Tapu Koko, Mega Gengar, etc. I don't mind making your set the first set since its better for teams based around Aurora Veil, but I still find more offensive variants to have its uses.

I'm probably gonna slash Blizzard onto the bulky set though, because it's the only way to OHKO Breloom, who can be extremely annoying to this strat lol.

(Also I do have some bigger fish to fry first, Greninja and a certain other thing before this gets done!)
 

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