Triple Ice HO (SV ZU)

[i am a dirt]

One day, I woke up and decided to play some ZU. That's how I got here.
This team peaked about 1200 on the ladder (not higher because I somehow manage to have both skill and luck issues), but I have no proof for it because I forgot to screenshot it. Sorry :/
Ice in general is a very bad type, due to its lack of resistances, but ZeroUsed has a bunch of good Ice-types and a snow setter. This team mainly uses Abomasnow to power up both of our snow abusers and sweep teams.
Anyway, the team:

Abomasnow @ Eject Pack
Ability: Snow Warning
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Aurora Veil
- Blizzard
- Leaf Storm
- Earth Power

I mean, what did you expect? Abomasnow's snow gives both of the team's snow sweepers a Defense boost, an Ice-type move boost, and gives Beartic a Slush Rush boost. It can also set Aurora Veil to make it even easier to set up. The EVs are the standard-issue Smogon EVs. This Abomasnow has Leaf Storm + Eject Pack to provide free and safe pivoting into Beartic or Glastrier (but mostly Beartic, since Glastrier can still function without snow) while also being a nuke. I decided on Tera Dragon because my team has very few shared resistances to Dragon, and Tera Dragon makes it easier to pivot into Abomasnow later to set even more snow.

Glaceon @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Ice Body
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 4 SpD / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Calm Mind
- Freeze-Dry
- Tera Blast
- Stored Power

Glaceon abuses Aurora Veil and snow to gain easy setup opportunities and then spam Freeze-Dry, Tera Blast, Tera Blast Water, or Stored Power. It functions as a check to everything that the other members of the team hate as well, especially Typhlosion via Tera Water. The EVs are simple, getting as much speed as possible, maxxing out SpA, and dumping the remaining four into HP. Glaceon replaced a Glastrier to prevent my Ice sweepers from being walled by Weezing.

Beartic @ Loaded Dice
Ability: Slush Rush
Tera Type: Psychic
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Icicle Spear
- Tera Blast
- Earthquake

Somebody woke up from hibernation too early.
Beartic uses Abomasnow's snow and Aurora Veil to tear holes in the opposing team. The only thing the average person would find odd is Beartic's Tera Psychic Tera Blast, which is mainly used as a way to deal with those darnded Weezings. Although it is a wasted moveslot outside of Tera, Icicle Spear and Earthquake have perfect neutral coverage anyway, and its Attack stat is massive enough to deal good damage to most threats.

Fletchinder @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Gale Wings
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Defog
- Roost
- Brave Bird
- U-turn

Lurantis @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Contrary
Tera Type: Rock
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Defog
- Synthesis
- Leaf Storm
- Knock Off

I've been teeter-tottering between these two as entry hazard removers. Lurantis can do more over the course of a game with Contrary Leaf Storm, but its HP recovery is slashed in half in snow and its Defog is not guaranteed. Fletchinder can reliably get off a Defog, which is very important when half your team is weak to Stealth Rock.

Clawitzer @ Choice Specs
Ability: Mega Launcher
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Aura Sphere
- Dragon Pulse
- Water Pulse
- U-turn

Classic Clawitzer, it functions as the team's only special wallbreaker. Good damage attacks and pivoting with U-turn. Not much else I need to say here.

Sneasel-Hisui @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Inner Focus
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Gunk Shot
- Throat Chop
- Switcheroo

Sneasel's ONLY reason of existence is to outspeed Scarf Typhlosion and simaltaneously dent and neuter it with Tera Poison Gunk Shot. (It even has a small chance to OHKO!) This was originally a Mesprit, but I needed something to deal with Typhlosion and Mesprit was the easiest to kick off. It is also worth mentioning that Switcheroo screws up Weezing and Sandaconda, as well as other walls.


-Threats-
Hippopotas and Sandaconda
It's not the bulky aspect of these Pokemon that makes them both royal pains, since any of my Ice-types and Clawitzer can dispose of them with little issue. It's the fact that either can also replace snow with sand, which provides chip to all of my Pokemon, removes the 1.5x Defense boost, and turns Beartic into Glastrier at home. The inclusion of these in an opposing team (with a smart opponent, of course) often causes weather wars. However, neither of these are the biggest issues due to my own weather setter's winning matchup into either of these Pokemon. Sand abusers are not issues without sand (and sometimes with sand) because Glastrier can take a hit at full and respond with super-effective STAB, and Clawitzer's very existence can threaten a KO and scare them out.

Weezing
Weezing defensively checks my Ice-type sweepers, often threatening a burn every time it switches in. Weezing tends to be annoying to Sneasel and Beartic and hits Abomasnow for super-effective damage, but is easy to break with my two special sweepers and Tera Psychic Beartic. Therefore, it is not as bad as, say. . .

Typhlosion
Oh my gosh.
This team has gotten swept by a Typhlosion too many times to count. The only things that aren't OHKOed by max health Eruption from either variant are Clawitzer and Terastallized Abomasnow, and even then it does around 70 percent to either. If it has max Speed EVs, the only thing that outspeeds even the Specs variant is Sneasel. With Specs and no Speed EVs (who runs that anyway?), the only other thing that outspeeds it is Beartic under snow, which involves sacking Abomasnow. If Typhlosion gets a free switch, something has to be sacked. The only two ways to deal with Typhlosion on my team are max health Clawitzer and Sneasel. Using Clawitzer neuters Typhlosion but involves sacrificing Clawitzer, and Typhlosion can still pivot out and come back in later to use Fire Blast. Sneasel has a chance to OHKO or poison with Tera Poison Gunk Shot, which totals up to a 40% chance to OHKO. Gunk Shot still has a chance to miss, though, and finally, if Gunk Shot doesn't OHKO, they can still come back out later to spam Fire Blast. Typhosion, every time it comes in, threatens a 2v1 even with good luck.
I wrote this before Glaceon was on my team.
Glaceon checks Typhlosion pretty well with Tera, eating a max-health Eruption with a boost or two and can OHKO back with Tera Blast Water. But still, the matchup into Typhlosion is horrible, especially if something like Beartic was Terastallized.

-Other Things To Mention-
This is the Mesprit that was replaced with Sneasel due to it also having a bad matchup into Typhlosion.

Mesprit @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Encore
- Dazzling Gleam
- U-turn

This is the Glastrier that was replaced by Glaceon.

Glastrier @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Chilling Neigh
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 240 HP / 16 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Icicle Crash
- High Horsepower
- Close Combat

Not much explanation needed here, it is a standard-issue Glastrier. Nothing was changed from Smogon.

And there's the team. Fire away. ^-^

 

[lettuce]

Hi i am a dirt, This is probably a little late but here are my thoughts on the team (also, first time rating wooo):

I tested it as-is in exactly 1 game (well the other was vs mono ghost so I didn't count it), and i def misplayed a bit since I loaded into a 6-0 Beartic matchup and let Abomasnow and then Beartic die, but it felt to me a bit like I was playing with 3 mons. If you run into a Sableye, Jolteon, or Poison-Fighting, there isn't much defensively that the team can do. And yeah, Hyper-offense doesn't need to have defensive answers, but its not an archetype that aims to keep mons alive for long, and a well-positioned Glaceon or Clawitzer doesn't really help against those guys either. I'm also not sold on Glaceon + non-icy rock Abomasnow, since Beartic is so good in snow that I never found myself going to Glaceon. There are also no hazards.

Small changes:
Run Speed EVs (If you want, that is)
If the goal is to get up veil and get out, why not invest to go first as much as you can? I usually find value in running 248hp / 8 SpA (or whatever) / 252+ Speed, but if you like the damage then you don't need to make this change.

Jolly Nature, Tera Fire, Close Combat > Tera Blast (probably)
Changing Beartic's nature from Adamant to Jolly allows it to outspeed Scarf Passimian. It's one of the more common scarfers in the tier, and I think its absolutely worth making this change. Tera Psychic was fun to click in the replay I linked above, but if the biggest reason you're running the tera is for Weezing, I would choose a different type so you can stay in against more wispers like Drifblim and Sableye. If you are against a Sableye team and you're planning to tera Beartic, don't click Swords Dance as it risks the Sableye locking you into the move via Encore. Also, with Tera Fire Tera Blast, you're really hoping that an opponent's Snorlax doesn't click Body Slam and Paralyze you, since EQ doesn't KO it and the Snorlax's thick fat means TB Fire and Icicle Spear do halved damage. Close Combat on Snorlax can help with this, since it destroys Snorlax. You could also keep TB Fire if you think a Snorlax is going to Tera, expecting a Close Combat, as you click Earthquake, but I think Close Combat is safer especially since there are not hazards on this team. It also gives you another button to click if a Typhlosion wants to come in on you in hail.

Tera Dark (If you want)
Dark a very good tera type, mostly because it gives you Prankster + Psychic immunity. There's nothing wrong with Tera Poison Gunk Shot, but if your Sneasel is healthy, it's going to cut Typhlosion's Eruption power before the typh attacks, and the best a Typhlosion can do otherwise is this:
252 SpA Typhlosion Fire Blast vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Sneasel-Hisui: 201-237 (80 - 94.4%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
You can keep it as Tera Poison if you like it, but there is room to change it.


Bigger Changes:
-> OR /
Right now, Glaceon is a setup sweeper that depends on having a lot of turns in Snow/Veil, and it competes with Beartic for those precious turns. I think the team would be more effective with a Nasty Plot sweeper instead of Glaceon, since they don't need to sit still and click Calm Mind until they can sweep. Spiritomb, with NP/Trick Room/Dark Pulse/Psyshock, is probably the most effective mon for this role, and is the most usually seen on hail teams. It's bulky enough to set up without Veil (but obviously appreciates it), and Trick Room makes it one of the scariest sweepers in the tier. You can run Tera Water on it if you're afraid of Typhlosion still, and water also gives you an ice resistance, which can be helpful considering Hitmontop's Triple Axel is a 2HKO against tomb. Another option for this slot include Mesprit, who doesn't run trick room but provides utility in Encore, while sweeping with tera fairy NP/Dkiss/Psychic Move. If the goal for the team was to have 3 ice types, you could alternatively go with Rotom-Frost, who can serve as a pivot if you need with Boots + volt switch, while being a sweeper with tera electric NP + Blizzard + Tbolt. There's room to run Tera Blast if you drop volt switch or tbolt, but I don't think it's worth it, especially considering the amount of other mons you can tera on the team.

/ -> /
Frankly, Fletchinder and Lurantis don't have much of an impact on the meta, and I think you're better off with a different removal option. Hitmontop is the better mon and is an honorary Ice-type with technician-boosted triple axel (make sure you're running max attack and max speed, probably with an adamant nature, and taxel/cc/spin/probably bullet punch but possibly mach punch), but if you want an ice for real you can go with an offensive Cryogonal, with boots and spin/Freeze-Dry or Ice beam/ Tera blast (probably ground) or Flash Cannon/recover.

-> / or maybe
Part of the reason why Typhlosion is so threatening to this team is because you don't have any hazards to chip down its health every time it comes in. Physdef Mesprit is cool because it can serve as a pivot in the early/midgame, and run hwish to basically give you a second Abomasnow/Beartic if you need. A basic PhysDef set with rocks/Uturn/Psynoise/ Encore or Knock or Hwish is probably good. However, I did absolutely nothing to fix the Typhlosion MU, so if you don't want to have to save a tera for it every game, this slot probably has to be one of the tier's few fire resists. Between Regirock, Whiscash, Lanturn, Snorlax, Naclstack, and Camerupt, a Whiscash offers the most benefit to the team in my opinion, since it can offer rocks, spikes, and whatever coverage between water/ice/rock/ground you want. If you REALLY want to go crazy, Camerupt isn't bad here and makes the team look less standard, but I think Whiscash does the same role but better.

And here are the changes that I made: https://pokepast.es/3869e8c274d0fafa

 

[i am a dirt]

Thank you for rating my team! After taking your recommendations into consideration, I produced four teams, each with , , and , and tested them all on the ladder. I then proceeded to make a tier list of these teams for reference.
But before that, I’d simply like to mention that I did change Sneasel’s Tera Type to Dark because Tera Dark Throat Chop does about ⅔ of ’s health and is 100% accurate, providing a reliable way to deal with the flaming rat. Anyway:

Best


All of these are chosen because they have good synergy, or at least don’t violently counteract each other. This combination is the best of the four at keeping up momentum. , , and do , , and things. spins like it’s supposed to, and I find it more reliable than because is faster, has good special defense, and has redeemable physical defense in snow and Aurora Veil. is the same as the recommended set, except sometimes I run Healing Wish or U-turn in the fourth slot depending on practically what I ate for breakfast this morning. I ran a vastly different set on Whiscash, giving it D-Dance to catch opponents that goof off off guard. (It IS a HO team.)



This is also a very good combo, but generally, MCW is better. The main reason is that, while MCW synergizes very well, this group has two mons that synergize while leaving the other in the dust. is the Trick Room NP sweeper we all know and love. While is a defensive rock setter, I gave it Eruption so that if Tomb dies early from a crit or something, Camel can switch in and become sort of a bootleg Typhlosion until TR runs out. Cryogonal doesn’t like having its speed ruined by TR, so the only mon that doesn’t dislike switching in to a TR Tomb left behind is Camerupt, and who knows if it can actually erupt anyway?



Take what I just said above and replace Cryogonal with Hitmontop. I will speak a bit about Hitmontop though: While it does have Triple Axel among other good moves, it falls short of the reliability that the rest of my team so demands. It has less Speed but still sustains a net loss from TR, and is also a tad more frail, making it a lot harder for Top to come in throughout a game and remove hazards.


This combination just smells mainly because none of them synergize well, and Hitmontop is objectively worse for my needs than Cryogonal. I use Whiscash on teams with Mesprit and Camerupt on teams with Tomb.

This is the best team I could create with these recommendations:

Abomasnow @ Eject Pack
Ability: Snow Warning
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Aurora Veil
- Blizzard
- Leaf Storm
- Earth Power

Mesprit @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Psyshock
- Draining Kiss
- Encore

Beartic @ Loaded Dice
Ability: Slush Rush
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Icicle Spear
- Tera Blast
- Earthquake

Cryogonal @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 40 HP / 252 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
- Ice Beam
- Tera Blast
- Recover
- Rapid Spin

Sneasel-Hisui @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Inner Focus
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Gunk Shot
- Throat Chop
- Switcheroo

Whiscash @ Leftovers
Ability: Oblivious
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
- Liquidation

Obviously, there’s still some bad MU’s, like:


The MU into Typhlosion teams is significantly better, with my check being more reliable and with Whiscash existing. Tera Fire Beartic can also take a hit (although not well) and retaliate with Earthquake. However, half of the team dies in one hit, so I can’t say it’s AMAZING.

TR teams
None of the members of my team appreciate being their Speed taxed by TR except if I’m running Tombrupt. Also, most TR attackers have good MU’s into my own team’s attackers.

Sand teams
Having to deal with weather wars is annoying, especially if is dead, and considering that I have no passive damage, is practically guaranteed to set its sand up. The sand sweepers aren’t much of a problem themselves, but the sand is annoying.

Overall, I think these are definitely improvements, thank you so much.

The final team:

Abomasnow @ Eject Pack
Ability: Snow Warning
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Aurora Veil
- Blizzard
- Leaf Storm
- Earth Power

Mesprit @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Psyshock
- Draining Kiss
- Encore

Beartic @ Loaded Dice
Ability: Slush Rush
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Icicle Spear
- Tera Blast
- Earthquake

Cryogonal @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 40 HP / 252 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
- Ice Beam
- Tera Blast
- Recover
- Rapid Spin

Sneasel-Hisui @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Inner Focus
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Gunk Shot
- Throat Chop
- Switcheroo

Whiscash @ Leftovers
Ability: Oblivious
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
- Liquidation