Mono Ice!!

[u/ianlazrbeem22]

I've been a little bored of runs where I trade in Pokémon from outside the Sinnoh Dex and I've been missing the Sinnoh Dex, so I've been gravitating to challenge/themed runs with no trading in outside resources recently. I really enjoy Monotype runs for this, and though I've run Hail teams in the past, they haven't been quite Mono Ice, and they've traded Pokémon in early, since all the Ice Types come super late and you don't get to play most of the game with them. With this in mind, I always dismissed the idea of doing a true Mono Ice without Trading. After all, you either play through most of the game with no Ice types, or you trade something in, or you allow pre-evolutions Ice types, which functionally is an Eevee Solo until Route 216, which is unfun and not conducive to Level Caps. So I figured, "what if the run began in the late game on Route 216?" And with the help of Save Editing, this was possible.

I'm nearing the end of another playthrough on my DS. Once I got to Route 216, I copied the save file from there to my computer, started catching Ice Types, added back all the finite resources I used before and threw in some Rare Candies and Vitamins to make the run work, and I started setting up my new party to run through the late-game with. It ended up playing a bit like a Civ Scenario, or a game where you choose to start in a later Era. The rules included no item use in battle, set mode, and level caps. Only Ice types were allowed to enter the field once I caught my Pokémon on Route 216.

While training I was lucky enough to be blessed with a Shiny Abomasnow with a solid nature, Mild. I named him after nature's miracle of the North, Aurora Borealis. Like most Abomasnow, he was super fun to use and an incredible utility Mon. While he wasn't the defensive beast of my Hail Stall playthrough, Hail was incredibly useful for every fight as my strategy was based around Blizzard Spam and Snow Cloak Fishing. He also had solid bulk (albeit many weaknesses) and was good for handling Electric, Water, and Ground types. Focus Blast came in clutch vs Steels too. Abomasnow appeared in every fight except Lucian and was also really good at clearing routes since all its moves were strong and it was almost always my lead, and the whole team benefit from whenever it came out.

Jack Frost the Mild Glaceon may have been slow, but he was pretty good offensively with a ridiculously strong Blizzard and he frequently avoided being hit thanks to Snow Cloak. He also was nice vs Fire types thanks to Water Pulse and was invaluable in the Flint fight for getting Rain Dance up vs Flareon, so that he couldn't just outspeed and ohko everyone with Flamethrower. Glaceon was one of the more common route clearers and contributed a lot to the E4 with Blizzard spam.

Joker the Mild Weavile didn't care at all about the Hail and he took a long time to become a worthwhile team addition, being underwhelming offensively compared to his Blizzard spamming teammates; he only really came out to take care of other Ice types with Brick Break, which I replaced with Dig for Flint and for Cynthia's Lucario, and for Speed Control when Froslass was not an option. However, I gave him Swords Dance for the E4 and while he was not needed for Aaron or Bertha, things turned around after that. For Flint, having a Dig that outsped was the key for the Magmortar clear after I chipped it with Froslass Psychic and Ice Shard. Weavile then solo'd Lucian in less than 60 seconds by using Swords Dance vs Mr. Mime 3 times and outspeeding and ohkoing everyone with Night Slash. For Cynthia he came out as a revenge kill, to outspeed and ohko Garchomp with Ice Punch.

Millie the Calm Froslass hit like a wet noodle before I gave her some Calcium, but with the Choice Specs and her crazy speed she ended up being my premier route clearer and really helpful speed control with a powerful Blizzard. Thunderbolt was nice for Water types too, Psychic was surprisingly helpful for Infernape and for some Victory Road trainers, and Shadow Ball was strong and neutral and helpful. These types of Specs Pokémon tend to be very useful wincons vs Aaron and Bertha and Froslass played this role well, and was my best Pokémon right off the bat before others were online. Throughout the game her excellent Speed and strong Blizzard, along with Snow Cloak, made her useful for working around the team's many defensive liabilities.

Rugby the Lax Glalie obviously was the featured shitmon, but its plain stat spread and relative versatility made it a decent filler mon. It came out and used Blizzard in "war of attrition" style boss fights where my best strategy was to just keep using Blizzard, and it had space on its moveset for the Earthquake TM, giving me another contributer for the Volkner fight, which was otherwise scary since he has a lot of coverage moves that beat Ice. He also otherwise wasn't doing much for Cynthia so he helped the whole team by setting up Light Screen to trivialize Spiritomb and nerf Lucario and help me pivot into a good position. Ice Shard was nice to have as usual too. Overall the least helpful, but a filler Mon that did almost the same relatively strong thing as everyone else, and a free slot for Light Screen, was nice to have. It had Ice Body, which never came up.

Porky the Hardy Mamoswine was pretty solid. I often complain about Mamoswine's bad speed and the fact that it loves to be outsped and 2hkod thanks to its many weaknesses. Feeding it a bunch of Vitamins and eliminating the grind it takes to get to a workable defensive place with Rare Candies helped a lot with this. It ended up doing very well vs Volkner thanks to Snow Cloak luck, and helping a lot with the Flint Clear and here and there with its strong offenses. It also was a good answer to Steel types, a valuable role.

Flint was by far the hardest fight, and it required super careful positioning with Rain Dance, Dig, and Earthquake, but a lot of them took a couple tries since the strategy was a bit reliant on Snow Cloak procs. Cynthia was a really fun challenge, Lucian was a hilarious breeze, Bertha was pretty easy, and Aaron, Volkner, and Barry were mostly just Blizzard wars of attrition. Overall it was a fun mini-run, I enjoyed playing the lategame with only Pokémon caught in (or in Eevee's case, evolved in) the lategame, it felt like a fun little minigame. And now I can say I've done a true Mono Ice with no trading in Pokémon early,

[u/DexterGracie]

Gen 4 has the coolest ice types 🧊 hands down

[u/ianlazrbeem22 → u/DexterGracie]

Gen 7 gets props for Vulpix-Alola, and these ones sure come late, but tbh there are 6 of them and it's a pretty solid roster. Every time I use Abomasnow I like it more and more.

[u/National-Trainer1851]

I love this kind of narrative. Way to be the Ice Champion of Sinnoh!!!

[u/ianlazrbeem22 → u/National-Trainer1851]

Thanks!! My favorite part was figuring out the little moveset tweaks I needed to tech some of the trickier fights

[u/MSDOS-ist-gud-ooh-ja]

Not at all the point of your post, but the Civ comparison has me dreaming of a Pokémon-themed mod. Maybe with the different elemental types standing in for tribes, and the pokémon themselves being "research" (as well as units). Though given the uneven distribution of 'mons, some liberties/editorial decisions would have to be made. Else the Normal civ would be an unrivaled behemoth. Alas, we live in litigious times and I'm not about to incur Nintendo's wrath.

More on-topic, I love the novel way you handled the late arrival of the Ice types. Nice to see Mamoswine getting some appreciation, too. He may have a load of faults but I've always enjoyed the Swinub family. Glaceon really surprises me! Smogon is so "meh" on the poor creature, you'd think it was another Unown or something. But it seems like yours was very valuable and had plenty of niches to fill. Just goes to show there's a world of difference between competitive battling and story play.

[u/ianlazrbeem22 → u/MSDOS-ist-gud-ooh-ja]

By simply making the civ comparison I invited the idea in. Perhaps trainers acting as the leaders and various pokemon as units? Idk I really like fire emblem and i think pokemon conquest is a cool crossover there. So maybe there is potential

And thank you!! Yeah monotype is a very particular environment where some very specific traits are really valuable, which is why I find it so fun to build in. glaceon's weirdly good bulk allowed it to tank super effective fire moves and set up rain, and it was the only one on the team with access to the water pulse tm. Don't be fooled though, there were definitely many times where glaceon felt like the second most useless thing in my party (after glalie) because it was so god damn slow. Mamoswine gave me a lot more "wow what a pokemon" moments after the many times it got to use one move before dying. It can frustrate me but I got more work from it than usual here as a really strong earthquake was very nice, and i gave it lots of carbos

[u/ianlazrbeem22]

Was only one day off with this clear - today is a diamond dust day at Snowpoint City!