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Community POTW #054

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Serebii

Serebii

And, as if by magic, the webmaster appeared...
Staff member
Admin
Time for the next Pokémon of the Week

This week, we enter the December months with an Ice-type

365.png


It's Walrein!

https://www.serebii.net/pokedex-sm/365.shtml

Go nuts
 
GeeGee

GeeGee

Late to the party
Firstly, there is a typo in the Lycanroc-Midnight section of last week's POTW, under the No Guard section: "You can get off 100% accurate Stealth Rock, but it also works against you" it should probably say 100% accurate Stone edges.


Pros:
+Solid 110/90/90 bulk
+Decent coverage including Ice Beam, Surf, Waterfall, Rock slide, Crunch, and even Iron head
+Thick Fat is a great ability that completely walls Ice types
+Interesting set up options including Curse and Belly Drum

Cons:
-80/95/65 offenses are pretty poor, and its speed is in the middle of nowhere
-Higher special attack is held back by a poor special movepool
-two of its abilities are pretty useless
-Ice/Water is a pretty poor defensive typing even with Thick Fat giving it an extra resistance
-No reliable recovery outside of rest
-One of the only water types that doesn't get Scald

Abilities:
Thick Fat: Gives the pokemon resistances to Ice and Fire type moves. This takes Walrein's already 4x resistance to Ice and pretty much makes any ice type move used against this thing deal no damage whatsoever, as well as giving a nice resistance to fire type moves.
Ice body: Restores HP during a hailstorm. It's the equivalent of having a second leftovers, but it requires a teammate to set up hail, and that can leave your team with some common shared weaknesses
Oblivious: The pokemon cannot be attracted or taunted. Nobody uses attract, and Walrein doesn't utilize enough support moves to worry about getting taunted

Sets

Support
Item: Leftovers
Nature: Calm
Ability: Thick Fat
Ev's: 252Hp/4Def/252SpDef
Moves:
-Roar
-Toxic
-Surf/Ice Beam/Super Fang
-Surf/Ice Beam/Super Fang

Roar phases out opponents who try to use Walrein as setup fodder, and if you have stealth rock or spikes set up it can help rack up chip damage. Toxic can be used against other walls to slowly wear them down. Ice beam and surf prevent Walrein from being completely passive, and Super fang can be used to eviscerate Bulky targets and make them more susceptible to toxic and other chip damage.

Curse
Item: Leftovers
Nature: Adamant/Brave
Ability: Thick Fat
Ev's: 252Hp/252Atk/4Def
Moves:
-Curse
-Waterfall/Ice Fang/Avalanche
-Earthquake
-Rest

(Note that Avalanche is a transfer-only move from Gen 6.)

Curse makes use of Walrein's decent 110/90/90 bulk to set up and become increasingly difficult to kill. Waterfall or Ice Fang (avalanche if you can get your hands on it) is the main stab, and Earthquake provides good coverage against electric types and steel types. Rest is the only real means of recovery, but if you don't think rest is worth it then you can run another move like Crunch or Iron head.

Other Options
Crunch, Rock slide, Iron Head, Iron Tail, Signal Beam, Blizzard, Choice specs
Crunch, Rock slide, and Iron head all provide more coverage options, but keep in mind Walrein only has 80 base attack. Signal beam is about the only non-stab special option outside of hidden power. Blizzard gets perfect accuracy under hail, so If running a team mate to set up hail, this is the way to go. Choice specs can hit very hard, but the lack of switching moves can screw you over, as Walrein is walled pretty easily.
 
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Mestorn

Mestorn

Wandering Battler
Walrein, my favorite Gen III ice type, has quite a bit going for it. Its has reasonable bulk, possessing 110/90/90 defenses, useable offenses, and 3 decent abilities (Thick Fat, Ice Body, and Oblivious). However, Walrein is certainly a victim to the times; for as the metagame progressed, Walrein has fallen farther and farther behind as it cannot soak damage the way it used to. It is still a potent wall in the lower tiers, so watch out for it there. P.S. I would not mind at all having Spheal for a starter pokémon.

Iceberg Wall
Walrein
Ability: Ice Body
Item: Leftovers
-Substitute
-Hail
-Super Fang
-Ice Beam/Brine/Blizzard
Nature: Bold (+DEF, -ATK)
EVs: 248 HP/8 DEF/252 SDEF

The point of this Walrein is to keep a never ending stream of Substitute's Up while under hail. With Ice Body and Leftovers, Walrein gets a new Substitute once every 2 turns. Once behind a Sub, Walrein can start weakening its target with Super Fang before going for the kill with one of its other moves with little fear of damage or Status. Ice Beam is a reliable Ice STAB, hitting many pokémon for super effective damage. Brine works well in conjunction with Super Fang and Hail, having the same base power as Hydro Pump when target's HP > 50%. Blizzard works well in Hail, but suffers from poor PP which is counter intuitive to the stall wars Walrein will be running.

Having another Hail setter on the team is recommended. While Walrein can be on the field long enough for Hail to expire (Necessitating its place on the move set), not having to set hail up when Walrein first comes in is a boon. Entry Hazard removers are also required: Walrein is vulnerable and wrecked by every entry hazard, making it necessary to purge before sending Walrein in.

Other Options
Block -Trap Foes In!
Yawn -Switch or Sleep, your opponents choice.
Toxic -Every pokémon gets it and is a good choice on the bulkier ones.
Curse -Bulk Up and go for the sweep with Walrein's mediocre attack, but passable movepool. (It gets Earthquake and Rock Slide in addition to Waterfall and Avalanche/Ice Fang)
Encore -Either force a switch, or make your opponent extremely predictable for the next few turns.
Stockpile + Normalium Z - Stockpile buffs Walrein's defenses, while Z-Stockpile is a one time defense buff + full heal.

Moves Walrein should have but doesn't
Freeze Dry, Ice Hammer/Icicle Crash, Scald
 
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Sceptile Leaf Blade

Sceptile Leaf Blade

Nighttime Guardian
Mestorn said:
Walrein, my favorite Gen III ice type, has quite a bit going for it. Its has reasonable bulk, possessing 110/90/90 defenses, useable offenses, and 3 decent abilities (Thick Fat, Ice Body, and Oblivious). However, Walrein is certainly a victim to the times; for as the metagame progressed, Walrein has fallen farther and farther behind as it cannot soak damage the way it used to. It is still a potent wall in the lower tiers, so watch out for it there. P.S. I would not mind at all having Spheal for a starter pokémon.

Iceberg Wall
Walrein
Ability: Ice Body
Item: Leftovers
-Substitute
-Hail
-Super Fang
-Scald/Ice Beam/Brine/Blizzard
Nature: Bold (+DEF, -ATK)
EVs: 248 HP/8 DEF/252 SDEF

The point of this Walrein is to keep a never ending stream of Substitute's Up while under hail. With Ice Body and Leftovers, Walrein gets a new Substitute once every 2 turns. Once behind a Sub, Walrein can start weakening its target with Super Fang before going for the kill with one of its other moves with little fear of damage or Status. Scald is the move of choice, possessing decent PP and can increase Walrein's bulk with by burning your opponent. Ice Beam is a reliable Ice STAB, hitting many pokémon for super effective damage. Brine works well in conjunction with Super Fang and Hail, having the same base power as Hydro Pump when target's HP > 50%. Blizzard works well in Hail, but suffers from poor PP which is counter intuitive to the stall wars walrein will be running.

Having another Hail setter on the team is recommended. While Walrein can be on the field long enough for Hail to expire (Necessitating its place on the move set), not having to set hail up when Walrein first comes in is a boon. Entry Hazard removers are also required: Walrein is vulnerable and wrecked by every entry hazard, making it necessary to purge before sending Walrein in.

Other Options
Block -Trap Foes In!
Yawn -Switch or Sleep, your opponents choice.
Toxic -Every pokémon gets it and is a good choice on the bulkier ones.
Curse -Bulk Up and go for the sweep with Walrein's mediocre attack, but passable movepool. (It gets Earthquake and Rock Slide in addition to Waterfall and Avalanche/Ice Fang)
Click to expand...

Walrein is an ice type, ice types never get Scald. I'd say just go with Toxic, it's far more reliable anyway. Or maybe Stockpile to boost Walrein's defences. Stockpile is the one thing aside from Ice Body that Walrein really has over Lapras.
 
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generic villager #5

generic villager #5

Your ad here!
Let's talk checks and counters.

Taunt Users - You probably saw this coming. Walrein needs healing, subs, and support moves to stay alive. Taunt will shut those down, and most users outspeed Walrein. Depending on the set, you can make them pay for it with Super Fang though.
Other Ice Types - Walrein likes having Hail to damage opponents while healing. That's a lot harder if your opponents are immune to hail, or even benefiting from it themselves. In particular, this is a threat from Water/Ice types that resist Walrein's STABs; from Rotom-F, who has a SE STAB on Walrein; and from Beartic, who gets a speed boost and has SE coverage. Toxic is Walrein's best defense here.
Super-Effective STABs - Walrein's defenses aren't that great and Ice is a terrible defensive type. There are plenty of Electric, Fighting, Grass, and Rock-type STABs in the low tiers that can break Walrein's defenses and many of them come from faster foes. In particular, Poliwrath and Roselia can give Walrein a hard time and have options to deal with its support movepool as well.
Residual Damage and Status - Walrein fears Stealth Rocks and Toxic, and it's no fan of burns, poison, sleep, spikes, etc.

Also I think Encore should be slashed on most sets. Without it most sets are susceptible to setup sweepers, the potential threat of Walrein having Encore is an important mind game that can keep it alive longer.
 
Mestorn

Mestorn

Wandering Battler
generic villager #5 said:
Let's talk checks and counters.

Taunt Users - You probably saw this coming. Walrein needs healing, subs, and support moves to stay alive. Taunt will shut those down, and most users outspeed Walrein. Depending on the set, you can make them pay for it with Super Fang though.

...
Also I think Encore should be slashed on most sets. Without it most sets are susceptible to setup sweepers, the potential threat of Walrein having Encore is an important mind game that can keep it alive longer.
Click to expand...

In regards to taunt users, Walrein can run Oblivious. While it doesn't have the bulkiness that Thick Fat or Ice Body provide, it enables Walrein to setup without fear of being shutdown by Taunt.
And yes Encore is an awesome move. The mind games you can play, and it can help guarantee a safe switch depending on the move your opponent uses.
 
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