You are a type specialist in a hostile region. How do you best represent your chosen element?

[QuentinQuonce]

Kalos doesn't have any regional variants, which was the point of my statement; that we're not likely to get to use them again....did you misread Galar for Kalos? I was referring to Galar's DLC Zone dexes, not Kalos and its split dex options

No, I meant Kalos - your mention of Galar prompted me to think about the split dexes in Kalos; was sort of going off on a tangent.

But yes, you're probably right that there aren't many other contexts that'll allow for regional forms to be included. There's potential to do Alola proper I guess if I restrict "Pokedex" to mean each the listing for each individual island, but I need to go over the Alola listing properly to be sure.

 

[RocketSurgery]

Ditto. Fits the inorganic theme that's so often synonymous with Steel, and is occasionally used by Scientists and Researchers in the games.

If I had been at a loss for non-Dugtrio regional form/evo options, I might have gone for Ditto because of its alleged evolution from the GS beta using the metal coat (which I thought was a steel type, but apparently in the beta it was still normal type??).

 

[misterdarvus]

No, I meant Kalos - your mention of Galar prompted me to think about the split dexes in Kalos; was sort of going off on a tangent.

But yes, you're probably right that there aren't many other contexts that'll allow for regional forms to be included. There's potential to do Alola proper I guess if I restrict "Pokedex" to mean each the listing for each individual island, but I need to go over the Alola listing properly to be sure.

Bro you'll giving hard time for people to fathom that you're restricting things like "Coastal Kalos dex only"or "Melemele island residents only". Other than people will unknowingly break your rules, I don't remember any NPC flat out explaining that they restrict their team like that. Especially that we're supposed to have full-power team.

Regarding "Fairy specialist in BW", I'm sorry that I think that wont work. Unless we're waiting for the inevitable faithful remake of Blacker and Whiter. That's why Fairy Specialist in ORAS and Steel Specialist in LGPE works brilliantly. Contrast with Fairy specialist in RSE or Dark Specialist in RBY, you get the idea.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Bro you'll giving hard time for people to fathom that you're restricting things like "Coastal Kalos dex only"or "Melemele island residents only". Other than people will unknowingly break your rules, I don't remember any NPC flat out explaining that they restrict their team like that. Especially that we're supposed to have full-power team.

This is largely why I'm resisting using Kalos for the moment. I'm sure eventually I'll try it, but... it's too much of a potential headache for now.

 

[Imperial Magala]

This is largely why I'm resisting using Kalos for the moment. I'm sure eventually I'll try it, but... it's too much of a potential headache for now.

Honestly, with how famously shit a lot of the teams of Kalos Leaders and Elite Four Members are, it would be more so picking up were the devs left off. Hell, Mega Gardevoir is the only Mega used in a regular league match. Mega Lucario is only used by Corrina outside of her gym battle. Plus, it would make for an interesting difference between previous regions, going from having to go beyond a typing, to trying to limit yourself to only 6 members while debating if a Mega would fit your team.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Honestly, with how famously shit a lot of the teams are of Kalos Leaders and Elite Four Members are, it would be more so picking up were the devs left off. Hell, Mega Gardevoir is the only Mega used in a regular league match. Mega Lucario is only used by Corrina outside of her gym battle. Plus, it would make for interesting difference between previous regions, going from having to go beyond a typing, to trying to limit yourself to only 6 members while debating if a Mega would fit your team.

Kalos has a lot of scope for Megas in a way ORAS Hoenn doesn't, so that does give it a neat little niche. Mmm, I'm torn. There's a lot of potential Kalos questions... I'm more or less decided on the next question, but I'm going to give the next-but-one some more thought.

 

[R_N]

fwiw i think restricted chunks of Pokedex based on stuff like the 3 stripes of Kalos, the Islands of Alola and the DLC Dexes of Galar, are an interesting idea, though maybe a "X Type using only Melemele" type deal would work better after we've done more than like...10.

e: Well Kalos would probably be more "awkward" than "hostile"

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Evening all. Hope you've had a delightful week. The results of our fifth poll are in...

...and a hearty congratulation to Ironmage on not only becoming our first participant to win two, but two in a row no less!

 

[Pikachu315111]

Apparently I need to put a big multicoloured "read the rules in the OP" sign on every post I make in this thread. In case it wasn't clear, I'd rather this thread wasn't derailed by people suggesting their own concepts.

Reserving the right to be pissy because it's literally the second time in less than a week someone's done this.

Unfortunately as long as this thread goes I can see a newcomer now and again suggesting ideas for the simple fact it's easy to do: Make a (Type) Specialist in (Game). It's going to happen again, all you can do is keep reminding people of the rules when it happens and ignore any suggestions made; you have the master list afterall.

it honestly surprises me that Kanto doesn’t have more actual Steel-Types. From my knowledge that section of IRL Japan feels like it would have a surprising amount of stuff to pull from. I get it’s because “Steel wasn’t in Gen 1”, but in an alternate timeline where it was, I’d be interested to see what they came up with for the type.

I imagine it wouldn't that that many, maybe two families at most (one being the Mangemite family). One inspiration for making the region as natural as it is was because Tajiri wanted to share his childhood experience which involved him exploring (and bug collecting) the wooded areas near his home. As he grew up he saw these wooded areas torn down and replaced with industrial buildings, something which he felt was robbing future generations the feeling of adventure not far from home. If anything that's what the Electric-types generally represented, notably their abundance in such locations as the Power Plant.

I guess it depends to what extent you consider a regional form part of the generation the species is part of. Like, if I were asked to make a team consisting solely of Unova Pokemon (not, to be clear, a team in Gen V - subtle but important difference) could I include Hisuian Zoroark? It is a Zoroark, so technically an Unova Pokemon. But obviously it's also in many ways not an Unova Pokemon.

LGPE obviously included the Alola forms so (for that game at least) I'd say the intent was that we consider those species part of Kanto. Then again they're explicitly non-native in that game.

It's another factor that makes for interesting variance in teams, though. Everyone in this round used at least one Alolan form but I'd not have been surprised to see someone deliberately eschew regional forms and go for "pure" Kanto. Something to look forward to when I do "Steel in FRLG Kanto" one day

I would consider Regional Variants as only native to the region which they are named after. "
"Native" is not the same as "Originated"; the Zorua species originated in Unova but the Hisuian Zorua are native to Hisui, in Unova the native variant is the normal Dark-type Zorua. So if I were making a Ghost or Normal-type Specialist for BW(2),I wouldn't be bemoaning I couldn't include H-Zorua. Though, if a future game set in Unova were to add H-Zorua, I would consider that fair game if it fit the theme of the team I was making.

I liked the inclusion of the Alola variants in LGPE and don't mind how they did it, making them a unique obtain method while keeping them a foreign subspecies. I consider them a legal pick for any challenge in LGPE, though at the same time I do wonder if maybe I did overdo it by using all of them. Sure, I gave them all a role in my theme, but does it feel naturally to have a A-Sandslash instead of say a strong Fighting-type? Or to have an A-Dugtrio when I could have just had normal Dugtrio do the same job without issue?. Not that it matters now, though possibly something to consider for future teams.

If I had been at a loss for non-Dugtrio regional form/evo options, I might have gone for Ditto because of its alleged evolution from the GS beta using the metal coat (which I thought was a steel type, but apparently in the beta it was still normal type??).

View attachment 529945

Being you used Metal Coat on it to evolve I imagine it would have been Steel-type (give it higher HP and defenses and it might have been able to take better advantage of Transform than Ditto did), but it was just never implemented.

...and a hearty congratulation to Ironmage on not only becoming our first participant to win two, but two in a row no less!

Winners Take The Precious Metals

Gold - Ironmage. As I joked previously, I was a bit early with my "light/glowing" theme idea. With Steel-types having a "light" Move makes better sense than Ghosts, at least at the time we're making the teams. I would say this is probably one of the more diverse teams, excluding one of the Alolan mons, and not only including Electrode (Kanto's other pseudo artificial Pokemon which could have worked on any team) but also allow Starmie and Porygon for flavor and Type coverage. Diversity is sometimes as much as part of the theme as a Pokemon of the Type.

Silver - Me. Thanks everyone who voted for me! Think I'm now getting into the swing of things, just gotta improve on my moveset making.

Bronze - Hugin. Probably the more creative theme of us all, though that can just be as much as a detriment as an advantage. While the Typing is part of the theme, the Typing could also get just as lost in the theme. A good theme gets your attention, but at the end of the day we're also making a Type Specialist so said Type should be at the forefront. A tricky wire act to walk.

Copper - Imperial Magala & Rocket Sugary. A focus on Pokemon who use metal objects, a general theme though just as fitting. Both have their quirky picks like Alakazam and Meowth alongside obvious ones such as Onix and the arm blade Pokemon. There's start of themes here, but never fully dedicates to one; and in this case specialization was the key (though it may not always; each contests has brought specific hurdles).

 

[Hugin]

Good job Ironmage! This was one where it felt like the teams were mostly very similar, so small details for putting things together mattered a lot more.

 

[Ironmage]

I suppose all of the time I've spent on stuff like "what is the most representative team for this character with 30 seconds of screentime in Star Wars" was practice as well as just entertainment.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

After conferring (read: flipping a coin), Ironmage has signed off on the next poll. And we're going back to Unova...

You are an Ice-type specialist in BW Unova. How do you best represent your chosen type?​

A reminder to please read the guidelines in the OP before commenting, especially if you're new to the thread. BW Dex is here should anyone need it.

You have until July 5th, 9PM GMT to make your case!

Teams so far

Imperial Magala: Vanilluxe, Beartic, Cryogonal, Sawsbuck, Golurk, Klinklang
SturdyShedinja: Vanilluxe, Beartic, Cryogonal, Conkeldurr, Stoutland, Jellicent
R_N: Vanilluxe, Beartic, Cryogonal, Stoutland, Sawsbuck, Zoroark
Hugin: Beartic, Cryogonal, Gigalith, Sawsbuck, Garbodor, Samurott
Ironmage: Vanilluxe, Beartic, Cryogonal, Sawsbuck, Zebstrika, Simipour
Misterdarvus: Vanilluxe, Beartic, Cryogonal, Vanillish, Sawsbuck, Swanna
Guys the ret: Vanilluxe, Beartic, Cryogonal, Sawsbuck, Cofagrigus, Seismitoad
Celever: Vanilluxe, Beartic, Cryogonal, Sawsbuck, Stoutland, Volcarona
Pikachu315111: Vanilluxe, Beartic, Cryogonal, Alomomola, Scrafty, Cofagrigus
bdt2002: Beartic, Cryogonal, Sawsbuck, Garbodor, Darmanitan, Seismitoad

 

[Imperial Magala]

Pretend that Sawsbuck is Winter Form


All of the fully evolved Unova Ice types. Out of all of three, Vanilluxe is used the most by strong trainers, specifically N and Alder, but is never used as an Ace, so consider it the ace of the team.


Even though it's not an Ice type, Winter Form Sawsbuck is only found in winter, making it associated with Ice types more than other types, justifying its team slot.


Thanks to Sword and Shield, I associate Steel types and more autonomous Pokemon with snowy conditions due to the spawn changes in the Wild Area, such as the Lake of Outrage.

Golett and Golurk are found in Dragonspiral Tower, which is in an area that receives a lot of snowfall, so I associate the whole area with winter. Klinklang is a cold machine more so than other Steel types, making it a pick for the team.

Considered options were Durant, Ferrothorn, Escavalier, Excadrill, and Bisharp for being Steel types, Mienshao and Druddigon for being found within Dragonspiral Tower, Samurott, Braviary, and Zoroark for inhabiting snowy areas in Hisui, and Stoutland, Cinccino and Bouffalant for being Normal types with fur coats that can endure winter coldness.

 

[SturdyShedinja]

For this team, I decided to focus on one of the more overlooked ice dungeons: the cold storage. The three ice types are pretty standard, though I tried to make them as unique as possible with their moves.


The timburr line is very prominent in the cold storage, being used by several trainers and being a common wild encounter. The trainers in Brycen’s gym are also black belts. (Also, Conkeldurr doesn’t get ice punch until B2W2. It makes sense in retrospect since the tutor didn’t exist, but I still expected it to be a part of it’s normal learnset.)


Herdier is also a common encounter at the cold storage, and is used by some workers in other places iirc. Stoutland is also said to rescue people lost on snowy mountains, with its fur protecting people from the cold.


While not found in the cold storage, jellicent is a common encounter in the nearby Driftveil City. It also covers the ice type’s weaknesses very well, checking fire, fighting, and rock types.


Movesets here!
Thank you for reading this far! This round was definitely one of the more challenging ones so far imo, and I wanted to try something that would hopefully be fairly different. Overall, I’ve enjoyed participating in this thread a lot, and I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone else comes up with!

 

[R_N]

Beartic, Vanilluxe, Cryogonal

I love these guys. I'm not getting rid of them for the sake of being clever.

Stoutland

If Slush Rush existed, there's a not insignificant chance it would have gotten it in addition to or in place of Sand Rush. It's a hardy rescue dog that can handle a lot of harsh environments, & likely at least partially based on the Newfoundland dog breed.

Sawsbuck (Winter)
It is one of the very few notable changes in the Winter season, and it is hard not to think that maybe it could have become part Ice Type....It's nice seeing them in & around the snowy mountains of Paldea. I think this one is my favorite, visually, of the Sawsbucks.


And for my final one...I feel like there's some association with spooky kind of stuff in the icy environments. There's an entire yokai based around it (the influence for Froslass), you'll see the occasional ghost scattered around the peaks of Paldea (Spiritomb, near the ruins), honestly even Cryogonal is kind of spooky in concept, the way things can eerily disappear and reappear in a snow storm, and really even a snow storm could be an easy placement for something like a forest's eerie fog.
But I don't really care for most of the ghosts as an ice type association so how about....

Zoroark
The illusion aspect you can see really go in tandem with a snow storm or messing with travelers for its own ends. And you know at one point they were so hated they were driven away and into the snowy mountains where they adapted! So It's not even that unusual to see one in an icy locale.

Now let me take a big drink of water as I see what they adapted into

 

[Hugin]

An icy mountain in pokemon team form. Rocks, plants, snow, trash left by people, and then two cold-weather species(though admittedly not mountainous ones).

Gigalith as a mountain itself, but also crystalline. Winter-Form Sawsbuck really needs no explanation. Cryogonal is ice-type. Garbodor for trash is a stretch to include, but it just takes one look at reports of Everest's condition to see why it fits. Samurott is borderline an ice-type already, as a blubber-heavy water mammal. And then Beartic is also ice-type.

Spoiler

Gigalith @ Custap Berry
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Explosion

Sawsbuck-Winter @ Lansat Berry
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Horn Leech
- Jump Kick
- Natural Gift
- Swords Dance

Cryogonal @ Chople Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Ice Beam
- Flash Cannon
- Signal Beam
- Reflect

Garbodor @ Rowap Berry
Ability: Aftermath
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Gunk Shot
- Drain Punch
- Haze
- Toxic

Samurott @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Tail
- Megahorn
- Dragon Tail
- Rain Dance

Beartic @ Lum Berry
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Icicle Crash
- Low Kick
- Shadow Claw
- Aqua Jet

All with berries to show the connection with nature further. Lead rocks+boom Gigalith, fast Sawsbuck(Natural Gift turns into 80BP flying to deal with fighting types, or is just +2 crit rate on the final turn) and it exploits sun if they try that, Cryoganal is fully offensive and can drop Reflect to shore up its weak Pdef, Garbodor is the anti-sweep mon, with both Aftermath and Rowap berry to punish them for fainting it and plenty of slow-down moves, Samurott can phaze and set up rain, and then we have full sweeper Beartic for the ace. This team generally has multiple answers to fire, fighting, steel, and rock types while still having threatening mons throughout.

Concept is a standard hiker annoyed with people not respecting the mountain. Your test is to climb up to reach them, collecting trash along the way(picking up the low-value items scattered along the path generally triggers something that makes it easier to progress).

This was easier than the steel challenge, but there was a lot of "this mon halfway fits, but wait" moments even so. I nearly did an illusion team with Zoroark and Musharna for getting lost in a blizzard. Vanilluxe and Beartic traded off being included fairly regularly depending on how I felt about civilization vs wilderness, and Sawsbuck/Stoutland were similar to that. Samurott was easy to include, every other water type was not icy at all. The vast majority of rock/ground/steel options are shockingly bad fits IMO, Gigalith is basically the only one I could add. And Garbodor was the last one included, but when I realized what to do it all came together perfectly.

 

[R_N]

Oh Gigalith is a good pick; I had thought about using that one before remembering Zoroark.
My logic was going to be more along the lines of it probably retains traction well in icy areas (Boldore pierces the ice, gigalith is just. Big.) and while a lot of non-ice things are in twist mountain, the blue color scheme always has me associated it more with the surroundings.

If I had one criticism on the theme its mostly it can just as easily be a mountain climber team that has ice types on it, rather than an ice type specialist that's trying to make do.

 

[Ironmage]

I started by thinking about what Unova's Ice legendary represents, and I wasn't able to escape it. That which is left behind, frozen in time because it has no future. It hit too close to home with where I am with a lot of series I enjoy for me to be able to think of anything else.


Cryogonal @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
- Rapid Spin
- Ice Beam
- Recover
- Toxic
If it's a defensive mon, it can reasonably run Toxic. No exceptions.


Vanilluxe @ Petaya Berry
Ability: Weak Armor
- Signal Beam
- Ice Beam
- Autotomize
- Flash Cannon
This should have been the one to break out. It was later given the kind of ability that could take something from the bottom all the way to the top, but it was second fiddle to a new mon even then. Both Signal Beam and Autotomize are now retired.


Beartic @ Lum Berry
Ability: Snow Cloak
- Bulk Up
- Aqua Jet
- Icicle Crash
- Toxic
It's a bulky set. That explains all four moves.


Sawsbuck-Winter @ Ganlon Berry
Ability: Sap Sipper
- Natural Gift
- Return
- Horn Leech
- Toxic
I had a lot of fun with Natural Gift in my damageless run of USUM. Here it's used to give out a strong Ice attack. Leech Seed was in contention for the last slot, but I'm holding on to as much as I can.


Zebstrika @ Life Orb
Ability: Lightning Rod
- Pursuit
- Volt Switch
- Overheat
- Thunderbolt
I used to run Electic monotype in December. There were other months for Ice, and I liked to joke about two of the reindeer translating to thunder and lightning. In addition to carrying a lost move, Zebstrika hasn't ever appeared in a regional dex outside Unova.


Simipour @ Ice Gem
Ability: Torrent
- Acrobatics
- Ice Punch
- Waterfall
- Return
A gen 5 team about being cast aside doesn't feel complete without one of the monkeys. I also wanted to include a Gem user somewhere on the team, since those were cut even sooner than much of the rest.

 

[misterdarvus]

The three BW Ices are mandatory and threw my usual NFE with Vanillish (and slap Eviolite on it).
Swanna is just because the color scheme looks icy enough. Also I decided to invest to winter Sawsbucks too.

Reminder that will be Ice-type in Galar region, but still too spicy for Ice team in BW

 

[guys the ret]

Well, after a few rounds of not doing this, I'm back, with my Ice-type Rain Team! It's something at least.



Cofagrigus @ Damp Rock
Ability: Mummy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rain Dance
- Haze
- Will-O-Wisp
- Hex

You first see this and- wait a minute? Cofagrigus? Come on, that mon only learns one Ice Move and it isn't even a damaging one! True, the only reason it's here is cos it learns Rain Dance and also Ghostly Chill of the afterlife I guess. It does annoying stuff with Haze, Will-o-wisp and Hex before setting up Rain and getting out of there.

Vanilluxe @ Focus Sash
Ability: Weak Armor
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Mild Nature
- Ice Beam
- Weather Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Explosion

One of the Ice-Types of the Unova Region and today I learned that Vanilluxe has Weather Ball because it does and it takes advantage of the weather like nothing else, which is to say nothing.

Cryogonal @ Damp Rock
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rain Dance
- Rapid Spin
- Ice Beam
- Reflect

Another of the Ice-Types of the Unova Region! It sets up rain, clears hazards and also reflect cos the other mons kinda lack in bulk. This would be so much easier if these mons had updated learnsets.

Beartic @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Ice Punch
- Aqua Jet
- Brick Break
- Bulk Up

Beartic gets Swift Swim, but only Aqua Jet and Dive to abuse it. It hits hard and ecspecially so with Bulk Up Life Orb. Also screw Icicle Crash, Ice Punch is better.

Sawsbuck-Winter @ Choice Band
Ability: Sap Sipper
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Return
- Horn Leech
- Jump Kick
- Wild Charge

Sawsbuck gets no Ice Moves but this one is found in the Winter! 4 moves punishes Water-types who come in to abuse the rain...

Seismitoad @ Choice Band
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Drain Punch
- Ice Punch
- Poison Jab
- Earthquake

Hey, it has Ice Punch and Swift Swim! Better than both Sawsbuck and Cofagrigus in that regard.

 

[Celever]

Alright I'm back after being too busy in previous rounds to really submit, lol. I think this question has 4 gimmes: Beartic, Cryogonal, Vanilluxe, and Sawsbuck-Winter. What ties all 4 of these mons together in a theme that isn't "Ice-Type / cold / wintry"? Nothing!

So uhhh, default "I grew up at the top of an icy mountain and this is the team I ended up with" gaming it is.


Our Ice-Type Pokémon for the event. Not much to say here, I considered excluding Vanilluxe because I associate the family with being urban (due to Cold Storage), but that's actually the only urban environment they're encounterable in the rest are rural.


Just in case it still needs a justification, cold Sawsbuck goes brrrr (because it's cold, geddit). Also, this is kinda the only one that Sawsbuck's seasonal gimmick properly works for. You could sort of argue Fairy-Type for spring literally just for being pink, Fire-Type for summer (but any of the Sawsbuck are a great fit for Fire-Type in Unova IMO, arguably spring is even better for Fire-Type), and like Ghost-Type for autumn? Maybe? But with the Ice-Type association it's much clearer than those, because A) Ice-Type has the monopoly on being cold, and B) winter is p much the most important part of the seasonal cycle, Sawsbuck needs the winter phase in order to survive as a Grass-Type otherwise its leaves would keep growing to the point it can't stand up.


This very good borker rescues people stranded in blizzards, and has such a fuzzy wuzzy warm coat that any human sleeping next to it is warm and cozy even in the coldest winter. Ultra Moon notes that " A long time ago in cold regions, every household kept a Stoutland. " Well consider me a trainer from a cold part of the region, and I guess I have a Stoutland (let's just say Ultra Moon happens long enough after BW do to call it "a long time ago".


OK yeah this one seems strange, but my gut felt like it fit and it actually really does. As early as B2W2, Volcarona's dex entry reads " Thought to be an embodiment of the sun, it appeared during a bitterly cold winter and saved Pokémon from freezing. ", and by Scarlet it even says " Its burning body causes it to be unpopular in hot parts of the world, but in cold ones, Volcarona is revered as an embodiment of the sun. ". So Volcarona is more popular in colder territories, making them more livable for humans, and its mythology therefore largely relates to its actions in snowy and wintry places. Considering we're not making a villainous team leader whose MO is to freeze the entire region to death *cough* Ghetsis.2.0. *cough* Volcarona is actually a wonderful fit for "grew up in a freezing cold climate, here's the team I got".

 

[Hugin]

If I had one criticism on the theme its mostly it can just as easily be a mountain climber team that has ice types on it, rather than an ice type specialist that's trying to make do.

I don't disagree, but I figured out around ORAS-Fairy that just the type isn't enough for me, there ends up being too many borderline options to choose from and no way to narrow them down. I need an actual concept for what the team looks like, how/why it exists, etc.

 

[Pikachu315111]

This was a challenge. I was thinking of doing a manager in Cold Storage, but not only did I wonder it was too obvious but SturdyShedinja than did a team based on it (and while we don't have team dibs, their team is pretty much what I would have done with maybe one exception). So, I than wondered what an Ice-type Specialist in Unova would be. Brycen may be an Ice-type Specialist but he was always sort of an odd one of the Gym Leaders, his job and Typing not really associated, so no real inspiration there. So, I then looked to BW2. While yes, this challenge is just for BW and I made the team using the restrictions on BW (meaning no BW2 Move Tutors), many events which took place in BW2 likely started in BW. One in particular made me make a team for this guy:

This is no ordinary Scientist, this is a Team Plasma Scientist. And Ghetsis assigned him a special research task on discovering the Power of Kyurem. It would be a few years later his research would be used by Ghetsis to capture Kyurem and use its power to threaten Unova. But until then, he is just a researcher and his Pokemon reflect his research:

Pokemon (Ability. Item. Moves)
Alomomola (Healer. Icy Rock. Hail/Aqua Jet/Wish/Safeguard)
Vanilluxe (Ice Body. NeverMeltIce. Blizzard/Flash Cannon/Icy Wind/Sheer Cold)
Cryogonal (Levitate. Focus Sash. Hail/Blizzard/Mist/Sheer Cold)
Beartic (Snow Cloak. Quick Claw. Icicle Crash/Dive/Superpower/Sheer Cold)
Scrafty (Intimidate. Wide Lens. Hi Jump Kick/Crunch/Dragon Tail/Ice Punch)
Cofagrigus (Mummy. Leftovers. Shadow Ball/Psychic/Trick Room/Haze)

Ice Cold Reasoning

Alomomola:
Reason Picked: Alomomola is here strictly as a Hail setter. I was tempted to use Seismitoad instead, but went with Alomomola because I felt it made for the better setter as I'll explain in Strategy. While it seems like a superficial choice, if you're studying an Ice-type I feel Hail would be a major aspect to the research (even if Kyurem doesn't have anything directly related to the Hail weather condition), so having a good Hail setter is an important contribution.
Strategy: Alomomola is my initial Hail setter (hence it holding an Icy Stone), aka my first mon out. Why I chose it over Seismitoad? Because both have the problem of not having a way to switch to another party member without risking them to damage (seriously why doesn't Alomomola learn Baton Pass?). However, Alomomola has Wish, so while it can't prevent the switch-in from getting hurt it can heal the damage they receive (and Alomomola is one of the best Wish users in Gen V due to how Wish works in Gen V, using half of the user's HP instead of the recipient; having 165 base HP). It's Ability is Healer as Regeneration wouldn't be available until BW2, Hydration is useless on a Hail team, so has Healer just incase its in a Double Battle. Safeguard gives Alomomola an additional way to protect switched-in allies as well as itself. Finally has Aqua Jet so it can do some damage (sans Water absorbing Abilities), and it also hits Fire & Rock for SE damage.

Vanilluxe:
Reason Picked: Ice-type.
Strategy: My Special hard-hitting Ice-type. Ideally Hail would be up so it can obliterate with Blizzard while passively heal with Ice Body. Flash Cannon is coverage. Icy Wind for both utility (decreasing Speed) and can hit multiple opponents (and another Ice-type Move to be empowered by NeverMeltIce). All my Ice-types have Sheer Cold because I think it would just be a fun gimmick to have as well as the closest my Pokemon can get to Kyurem's power (as a Legendary).

Cryogonal:
Reason Picked: Ice-type. Though of my Ice-type is has a higher significance. While its other three Moves are intended for battle, it has one that's there for symbolic reasons: Mist. Mist's Japanese name is "White Smoke" and is the counterpart to Haze which Japanese name is "Black Smoke"; which my Cofagrigus knows. White and Black, I don't think that needs any more explaining.
Strategy: Cryogonal is my back-up Hail setter; it has Focus Sash to guarantee it setting up at least one. But unlike Alomomola it's likely staying in until it faints, so it has Blizzard too (and Sheer Cold but that's not affected by Hail).

Beartic:
Reason Picked: Ice-type.
Strategy: Whereas Vanilluxe is my Special Ice-type hard-hitter, Beartic is my Physical. Beartic's strategy is Hit Hard, Hit Fast, & Dodge Hit. Hit Hard refers to Icicle Crash, Superpower (which it would reserve just for Steel-types), & Sheer Cold. Hit Fast refers to it having the Quick Claw. And Dodge Hit refers to both it having Snow Cloak and opting for Dive as its coverage (Dive also could be a Hit Hard, especially against Fire & Rock-types).

Scrafty:
Reason Picked: As a member of a villain team and a Type Specialist whose Type is weak to Rock- & Steel-types, having a Fighting/Dark-type I feel is fitting. Scrafty also oddly gets Ice Punch as an Egg Move from another Gen V Pokemon so has an Ice-type Move to use. Finally, it can learn from Dragon-type Moves which goes back to the Kyurem research (heck, its in the Dragon Egg Group even).
Strategy: Pretty straight forward with most of its Moves. Dragon Tail is the unique one and meant to mess with the opponent or hopefully get Scrafty a more favorably match-up. Intimidate is never a bad Ability, and with a lot of Ice weaknesses being Physical (both them and Scrafty notably weak to Fighting), decreasing Attack is much welcomed. Wide Lens just so it doesn't miss with Hi Jump Kick or Dragon Tail.

Cofagrigus:
Reason Picked: As my research would likely involve searching for and through ancient documents and places, an equally ancient Pokemon could be helpful to have. It's also my Haze user, symbolically there as explained with my Cryogonal (though I do feel Haze is a bit more useful than Mist, especially for Cogagrigus). Finally, it also relates him back to not just Team Plasma but Ghetsis specifically, Cofagrigus being the only other Pokemon aside from Hydreigon that has appeared on all of Ghetsis's team.
Strategy: Most is obvious, only one I feel need explaining is Trick Room. A lot of the Pokemon on this team is slow, and while Cofagrigus is not intended to be sent out unless needed, if its sent out before another Pokemon may as well use Trick Room if it got a chance to help itself and its allies out. But it'll mostly be using Shadow Ball and Psychic.

 

[bdt2002]

I hope this doesn't get too controversial, but if someone asked me one thing I know a lot of people like to talk about in the United States (where Unova is based on), one of my first answers would be about climate change. Oddly fitting considering this is also the one region that has the seasons mechanic. Case in point, it wouldn't surprise me if an Ice-Type specialist in Unova wanted to make a team to try and spread information about the topic. I understand this is far from the most fundamentally solid team out there, especially compared to the last round, but this time I wanted to place a common American conversation topic as my team theme over actual battle viability. (And I say that like the Ice-Type is good, to which it's the worst defensive type in the game soooo yeah.)



Cryogonal and Beartic were chosen as the Ice-Types for this team as they seem like the kind of Pokémon that would suffer more from the onset of climate change in Unova than the Vanillite family would (at least in my opinion). Polar bears are also currently classified as "vulnerable" with a decreasing natural population, so there's that.

Garbodor's inclusion is a reference to the collections of trash and waste that likely only further worsen concerns of a warming atmosphere no matter which side of the policital spectrum you're on. If I'm not mistaken, Trubbish can also be found in the wild outside of the Cold Storage in these games, and I'm pretty sure it can learn Haze too, a move notorious for being Ice-Type when most people think it shouldn't be.

Darmanitan's inclusion a reference both to its Ice-Type Galarian form but also to the "warming" part of this entire problem. I knew I wanted to include a Fire-Type on this team for that theming alone, but Darmanitan also has the added bonus of being a Pokémon known for residing in different kinds of climates than most other Fire-Types, especially compared to the other options in Unova.

Sawsbuck feels like a natural fit- pun intended- for someone who may want to raise awareness on the changing climatological conditions in each of the four seasons. In this way, our NPC's Sawsbuck would almost be like their own version of a lab rat, who thankfully can contribute to the team in other ways as well.

Seismitoad is one of a handful of Pokémon that can be found in puddles across parts of the region, usually in its pre-evolved forms. Experienced Unova fans may remember that these areas can actually freeze up during the winter in specific locations in and near Icirrus City. Perhaps the NPC we're making this team for wanted to study the biological habits of the Pokémon living nearby.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Time to vote again! Here's our poll, with a decent ten contenders on it. You have until July 7th 9pm GMT to vote for your chosen candidates.

https://strawpoll.com/40ZmqxVeMZa​

As ever, here's the numbers roundup with some of my thoughts.

numbers

Cryogonal: 10
Beartic: 10

Vanilluxe: 8
Sawsbuck: 8

Stoutland: 3

Seismitoad: 2
Garbodor: 2
Cofagrigus: 2

Vanillish: 1
Klinklang: 1
Swanna: 1
Conkeldurr: 1
Samurott: 1
Alomomola: 1
Scrafty: 1
Gigalith: 1
Simipour: 1
Zebstrika: 1
Jellicent: 1
Golurk: 1
Zoroark: 1
Volcarona: 1
Darmanitan: 1

Goodness, the hate for Vanilluxe truly is strong... without checking, I think this is the first round where a Pokemon not of the specified type is precisely as popular as one that is.

Stoutland definitely makes sense as the next most common pick. It's shaggy, looks snow-oriented, and despite having sand affinity has enough association with snow to work. Seismitoad and Cofagrigus were picks I expected - I actually sort of weirdly breathed a sigh of relief the first time I saw Cofagrigus used as I was starting to think no-one would. It's funny to see Garbodor used twice, though - would not have expected to see that be more popular than some of the ones who only got chosen once.

Many of the other one-time choices are interesting, though a lot of them are ones I expected to see picked more than once. I think it speaks to the fact that, while a lot of regions have a dearth of Ice-types, the characteristics of Unova's native species mean that it's a lot harder to patch up that shortfall. A lot of its mons are brash, bright, summery, loud, outlandish, or warm - all the things Ice-types generally aren't.

Stuff I expected to see more of (or at all):

Fighting-types (particularly Mienshao, but honestly just... all of them). Partly because Mienshao is found nearby to Icirrus City which I think coloured my expectations for a lot of species, but there's that whole focus/meditation link that Pryce, Candice, and Brycen are all associated with. Of the two Fighting-types we did get, Conkeldurr fits well enough but Throh and Sawk seem to me like they could fit onto this sort of team - Throh's bulky body fits the profile of something "hunkering down in the cold" quite well, while Sawk is... well, it's blue I guess.

Golurk. Has that cold, ancient sort of vibe and learns a few Ice moves.

Samurott. I'm not sure precisely why but it seems to fit Ice - maybe it's the whole sharpness thing. Idk.

Audino. Again, not really sure why I figured this would show up. Idk. Normal and Ice have a fair bit of overlap so it may have just been redundant on teams already using Sawsbuck and/or Samurott. But a team centred around a type as defensively awful as Ice would definitely benefit from a dedicated healer, I suppose.

Cincinno. Okay, I can explain this one: the scarf, duh. Wait, Cincinno gets Skill Link but doesn't get Icicle Spear...? I suppose it was always Cloyster's move.

Carracosta. I think I figured (correctly) that most teams would use at least one Water-type. Carracosta suits as well as anything else, and has that vaguely Ice vibe thanks to its hard shell - but it also gets Swift Swim as a HA, so has some synergy with Beartic. Considering one of our teams was a rain team I'm really surprised this wasn't at least mentioned as a possible pick.

Emboar. I'd actually forgotten that it doesn't keep Thick Fat as a HA (it has Reckless instead), but I did expect to see at least a couple of Fire-types. Weirdly I think most of Unova's Fire-types have a justification for inclusion - Chandelure, for instance, would fit on an "explorer"-themed team as the source of light used to guide them through a snowstorm or a dark mountain and the flame that keeps them warm - but I think the ones we saw included were justified well enough, so no big deal.

Druddigon. Yeah, on second thoughts actually no. My mind definitely went there because it's found nearby to Icirrus, it's literally everything antithetical to Ice.