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OU is in the midst of a storm, all because of this cute Ice Dino. It has instantly become a massive threat to common team structures with its amazing STAB combination and speed tier in Hail. Bolt Beak is its main STAB which adequately substitutes for Arctozolts mediocre Attack stat with its high base power making it a menace to switch into. Blizzard is its Ice-type STAB of choice which due to the EVs allows it to 2HKO Hippowdon, and Buzzwole, while OHKOing Kartana and Dragapult. Substitute is a great tool to make Arctozolt less prediction reliant, allowing it to abuse forced switches, while also giving it a way to deal with Choice Scarf users like Timid Tapu Lele and Kartana which can otherwise revenge kill it. Low Kick is the preferred coverage move since it can hit Ferrothorn and Magnezone which check Arctozolt. However, Freeze Dry can hit Swampert and Gastrodon which can otherwise switch into Arctozolt with ease. Alolan Ninetales is by far Arctozolts best teammate providing it with Hail, as well as Aurora Veil which it can easily use when Steel-types like Scizor and Heatran switch in against it. Which is also why Alolan Ninetales is BANNED this week.
Weavile @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Triple Axel
- Knock Off
- Ice Shard
Double Ice core - Weavile and Arcozolt share checks like Ferrothon, Melmetal, Scizor etc.. Hence, one breaks early game for the other one to sweep late game, while their checks getting hail chipped makes their sweep easier.
Corviknight is part of the double Defog cores commonly seen on hail teams to keep hazards off the field and help Arctozolt switch in since it is running Leftovers. Body Press allows Corviknight to damage Magnezone. Brave Bird is allows it to threaten Volcarona. U-turn allows it to pivot around Magnezone and switch-ins such as Tapu Koko. Corviknight can also be a good Knock Off absorber so that Arctozolt doesn’t lose its Leftovers.
Urshifu-Rapid-Strike @ Choice Band
Ability: Unseen Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Surging Strikes
- Close Combat
- Aqua Jet
- U-turn
Urshifu rapid pairs well with arctozolt because even though low kick can take out steel types zolts low kick is a 3hko or a 2hko and having a fighting type that can destroy steels types in the back to help arcto is also pretty neat urshifu can also pivot in zolt with its u-turn. Additionaly arctozolt removes water and grass types which are a common switchs into urshifu.which inturn lets urshifu have a better time breaking through the opposing team.
The worse mag :p (Magnezone) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Volt Switch
- Toxic/Teleport(warning! This is a Pros only move pls don't try at home without supervision)(as a millionaire)
Basically a lot of checks to zolt are bulky steels. They don't check it long term but defo annoy it a lot. Some examples are ferro, sciz, melm,tran etc
Non freeze dry zolt is also checked by pert and gastro pretty well as already stated by our host
Mag can trap and deal huge damage to those steels, while also luring gastro and pert and wears them down with strong hits and toxic
BUT YEET WHY NOT IRON PRESS IF YOU WANNA TRAP SCIZ AND FERRO AND STUFF? You donkey. iron press is not a rare set (neither is specs ik but hear me out) hence ferro would scout for it via double switches coz it knows it needs the health for zolt. Once it knows you're specs, ferro is one of the best checks to it hence it will come in and you can chip it with volt and potentially hazards. Pert and gastro should also be kept in mind, iron press does not deal with them too much better than specs, and tbh they'll just go lando or something once you reveal iron defense, so you're not targeting the same mon. Another (somewhat) of an arcto check is spdef hippo who can change the weather and blizz is not a guaranteed 2hko(76.6% with lefties) on top of the 70% accuracy and 8 pp. Zone can target that too, as again spdef hippo is a good check to mag.
so tldr
mag targets the same stuff and can wear them down while trapping pesky steels
Have a good day everyone
ight so koko is a good partner to arctozolt because of its electric surge powering up bolt beak to disrespectful levels and by being a good form of speed control outside of hail. other than that, it can provide safe pivoting on ground types thanks to uturn. in the last slot, defog can be fit for a double defog core, toxic hunts ground types even more, freeing up electric terrain boosted bolt beak even more alongside hail chip. gleam is standard stab coverage for pivot koko so I don't need to explain it. I may add that if you feel frisky, if you dont run dazzling gleam you could also run wild charge and get the most out of uturn as well with a physical tapu koko set. shuca berry is also a usable item for non-defog koko to further mess with grounds.
basically, you can customize your koko a lot more on hail teams and primarily it is used for reliable speed control and electric terrain setting pivot for arctozolt.
Im a Chicken Dinosaur Kyurem @ Heavy-Duty Boots Ability: Pressure
EVs: 104 HP / 252 SpA / 152 Spe Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk - Freeze-Dry - Earth Power
- Substitute - Roost
KYUREM fits very well on a Hail offense team. Substitute and Roost is able to grant it to be the dangerous threat, which it is. Substitute allows Kyurem to be extremely dangerous, as many pokemon have to break the Substitute beforehand, which allows Kyurem to have 1 more turn to attack or just to use Roost to get itself healthy again. Freeze-Dry is a very useful Ice-type STAB attack, which helps Kyurem to get past Gastrodon and Swampert, which Arctozolt without Freeze-Dry struggles with. Moreover, Earth Power is a useful tool to help against Steel-types such as Heatran. With a Ice- and Ground-coverage is Kyurem able to get past many threats in the OU metagame or weaken them severely for a lategame sweep for Arctozolt.
Blissey is a useful partner for Arctozolt due to Thunder Wave slowing down pokemon for Bolt Beak/Substitute. Teleport is useful for getting Arctozolt in without taking a hit.
This is a pretty straight forward submission but one I feel is probably worth bringing up considering how a majority of hail teams feature it as a pretty pivotal component in both the literal and figurative sense. Not only does it provide Arctozolt teams with an important Electric- and Ground-type immunity, but it provides a much-needed Heatran switch-in; a Pokemon that reliably pivots against bulky Water-types, opposing Landorus-T, Corviknight, and Buzzwole for Arctozolt to find breaking opportunities against; and a Pokemon that spreads Toxic as insurance against setup sweepers and to compound pressure against standard Bolt Beak checks. It can also set Stealth Rock to further accentuate residual chip damage against Arctozolt switch-ins, or it can round off a removal core to alleviate Stealth Rock pressure off of Alolan Ninetales. It's a "can't-go-wrong" Pokemon that does great in providing a general purpose glue option that can, unsurprisingly, reinforce the consistency that Hail cores boast in the current metagame.
Swords Dance Weavile by agslash23 Choice Scarf Tapu Lele by Plushietran Defensive Corviknight by avg Choice Band Urshifu-R by D5405 Choice Specs Magnezone by Dr Ya Yeet Pivot Tapu Koko by SLDR SubRoost Kyurem by Katy Blissey by HiddenPower23 Specially Defensive Landorus-T by ausma
And the winner is Corviknight by avg!! Congratulations!!
Next week is.. Stealth Rock Heatran
Heatran @ Leftovers Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 248 SpD / 12 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
Heatran has quickly become one of the best Stealth Rockers in the current metagame with its ability to pressure defoggers with its combination of Magma Storm and Toxic. Its defensive utility is also not to be underestimated being able to check the likes of Dragapult, Tapu Lele, Clefable, Ferrothorn, and Volcarona. Its great, its cute, it needs a partner in crime. Who will it be? Thats upto YOU.
Tapu Bulu is a great partner for Heatran, as it can compensate its Water- and Fighting-type weakness due to its great typing in Grass and Fairy. Tapu Bulu also offers Grassy Terrain to give additionally recovery for it in conjunction with Heatrans Leftovers. Tapu Bulu can also break through Landorus-T and check it for Heatran. Tapu Bulu can also check the likes of Garchomp, Hippowdon, and Barraskewda for it. Heatran also likes the coverage of Tapu Bulu being able to threaten Steel-types alongside it those being Iron Defense Magnezone and Corviknight. Tapu Bulu is also capable of offensively pressuring Urshifu-R, which is a huge threat to Heatran. Heatran however is able to check Volcarona for Tapu Bulu and it can check and whittle down Pokemon such as Mandibuzz, Corviknight, and Skarmory for it. Furthermore both are capable of overwhelming a huge amount of Pokemon in the OU metagame. They both partner up pretty well due to the assets and support they give each other.
Buzzwole @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 HP / 144 Def / 112 Spe
Impish Nature
- Drain Punch
- Ice Punch
- Roost
- Toxic
Buzzwole is a great defensive partner to heatran as buzz is able to tank common physical moves like earthquake and Close combat with ease which are the moves that heatran does not want to take and in a similar vein heatran helps buzz by tanking common special moves like psychic,moonblast etc.Buzz and Heatran cover each other annoying matchups aswell as heatran is able to eaisly scare out corvknight who loves to switch into defensive buzzwole and scare it out with brave bird and similarly buzzwole comes in on mons like Urshifu-R and landorus who are the mons who scare out Heatran.