Pokémon Avalugg-Hisui

[Ryomathekillers]

Type: Ice/rock

Base Stats: 95 HP/ 127 Attack / 184 Defence/ 34 Sp. Atk. / 36 Sp. Def. / 38 Speed
Abilities: Strong Jaw/Ice Body/Sturdy(H)

Notable Moves:
Aurora Veil
Avalanche
Body Press
Crunch
Curse
Earthquake
Heavy Slam
Ice Fang
Ice Spinner
Iron Defense
Iron Head
Mountain Gale
Rapid Spin
Recover
Rock Blast
Rock Slide
Stealth Rock
Stone Edge

Pros: Avalugg-Hisui is one of the few mons with both stealth rocks and rapid spin, allowing it to potentially have dominant hazard control, it is also the only one of those unique mons to have a reliable form of recovery (recover).

High Base Physically defensive stats allow Avalugg-Hisui to check strong physical threats such as Dragonite.

With Strong offensive stabs in Rock and Ice combined with a high base attack stat Avalugg-Hisui is not a passive wall

Between Edgequake and Mountain Glade Avalugg-Hisui has decent coverage, it also has access to curse and Body press in order to utilise its sky high defensive stat.
Sturdy and heavy duty boots alongside good attacking options can give Avalugg-Hisui a small role as a revenge killer as it is guaranteed to live any singular hit.

I like its design : )

Cons:

While Avalugg-Hisui does have strong offensive stats and good physical natural bulk as a defensive pokemon it is balls, it is 4x weak to one of the best offensive typings in fighting, while also packing a weakness to edgequake and water.

If its awful defensive typing wasn't enough, you might be fooled into thinking that at least Avalugg-Hisui can take on the other types fairly well, this train of thought however likely stops once it is realised that Avalugg-Hisui has 36 base Sp. Def. Once that is factored into consideration alongside the fact that Avalugg-Hisui will perish almost instantly when faced with a strong special attacker who will hit it neutrally hopefully for the sanity of the user, the thoughts of using Avalugg-Hisui will also perish instantly too.

Despite having a solid offensive ability in Strong Jaw it is nearly useless on Avalugg-Hisui with the only relevant move being boosted being Crunch. This should hopefully put to bed any dreams of using more offensive variants, alongside its terrible speed stat of 38.

Because of its dreadful speed stat Avalugg-Hisui will only outspeed pokemon such as Torkoal, this is an upgrade over regular Avalugg, but that is the equivalent of saying that getting shot in three limbs is an upgrade over getting shot in four limbs

Although it has a good set up option in Curse, it is impossible to find good set up opportunities as every relevant team will have a multitude of ways to instantly annihilate Avalugg-Hisui, bolstering Avalugg-Hisui's two best stats also doesn't do much for patching its weaknesses.

A weakness to rocks makes Avalugg-Hisui reliant on HDB as a spinner, this prevents it from using items such as leftovers, besides it is very unlikely Avalugg-Hisui will actually be able to get a spin off in the first place, it also doesn't help that it is weak to common hazard setters such as Great Tusk, Glimmora and likely Heatran+Lando-T.

I changed my mind, It looks dumb and I don't like its design : (


Terra Potential:
If you are deranged enough to use Avalugg-Hisui then you will likely need to Terra it in order for it to be useful, Compared to Regular Avalugg Terrad Avalugg-Hisui is superior arguably, you are trading 10 spdef for 10 attack, 10 speed, rocks and rock stab.

Terra Fighting can be utilised for Stab on Body Press alongside a typing which will still die in the face of Psychic and Fairy types, but you were likely dying to those anyways as they are commonly special attackers. Terra Fighting lets you actually semi reliably take on Physical Threats with Avalugg-Hisui's insane physically oriented stats such as Great Tusk, Lando-T, Kingambit and Dragonite.

Terra Ground can be utilised for Edgequake stab alongside a much better defensive typing which will allow Avalugg-Hisui to be able to actually switch into common physical threats.

Terra Fairy can be utilised to give Avalugg-Hisui a resistance to Fighting instead of a 4x weakness, it gives Avalugg-Hisui a weakness to Poison and Steel which both are not top tier offensive typings, this terra could allow Avalugg-Hisui to not perish against 6 of the enemies team members.

Terra Rock can be used to delude yourself into thinking you added a Garganacl to your team instead of Avalugg-Hisui, I'm not quite sure why you would want to do this option but it is probably fun.

Potential Sets:

Three Attacks:
Avalugg-Hisui @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Sturdy
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Stone Edge
- Mountain Gale
- Recover
- Earthquake

Rather than attempting to use Avalugg-Hisui for utility you could instead lean into its decent attacking attributes, If you really insist on using Avalugg-Hisui, although it will be very hard to find an opportunity to not only get it on the field, but actually force a switch theoretically Avalugg-Hisui is a hard pokemon to swap into for most teams. It can also act as a revenge killer with a plethora of tools to hit scary sweepers such as Dragonite and Roaring Moon who cannot muscle their way past sturdy+heavy Duty Boots.

Utility

Avalugg-Hisui @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Sturdy
Tera Type: Fairy/Ground
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Mountain Gale/Earthquake
- Recover
- Stealth Rock


What makes Avalugg-Hisui Unique? It has Hazard control and recovery, combined with Tera Fairy and it might be able to actually utilise its utility within a game., although it is a hefty investment to use your Tera, if you were planning on using Avalugg-Hisui you were also likely planning on using it as your Tera option. Earthquake could be utilised over Mountain Gale if you truly want to accept the role of Avalugg-Hisui as hazard control, using Earthquake lets it not get walled for eons by Gholdengo, unless it has an air balloon...

Curse

Avalugg-Hisui @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Sturdy
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Curse
- Mountain Gale
- Recover
- Body Press

Avalugg-Hisui Is a cursed pokemon, as such it is appropriate to consider using a curse set to make sure that not only you, not only your opponent but Avalugg-Hisui themselves will know that Avalugg-Hisui is a cursed pokemon. Compared to Regular Avalugg, Avalugg-Hisui is able to use a higher attack stat combined with a unique stab option in Mountain Gale to deal more damage after multiple curse boosts, You can also utilise Body press and terra fighting to drop a potential nuclear bomb upon an unsuspecting individual, if you manage to sweep with Avalugg-Hisui it will also likely be very funny.

Verdict

Avalugg-Hisui is a unique pokemon. It is also a bad pokemon. You have to use your terra or you are in a 5v6 in 99% of games, in 50% of games you are also in a 5v6 even after you tera your Avalugg-Hisui. It is Plausible that it gains a minisicle niche below even that of regular Avalugg due to its unique traits combined with being a surprisingly potent revenge killer, but if you somehow manage to create a team where the missing piece of the puzzle is Avalugg-Hisui then I highly recommend deleting your team and trying again.

 

[Loginator]

View attachment 520691


Type: Ice/rock

Base Stats: 95 HP/ 127 Attack / 184 Defence/ 34 Sp. Atk. / 36 Sp. Def. / 38 Speed
Abilities: Strong Jaw/Ice Body/Sturdy(H)

Notable Moves:
Aurora Veil
Avalanche
Body Press
Crunch
Curse
Earthquake
Heavy Slam
Ice Spinner
Iron Defense
Iron Head
Mountain Gale
Rapid Spin
Recover
Rock Blast
Rock Slide
Stealth Rock
Stone Edge

Pros: Avalugg-Hisui is one of the few mons with both stealth rocks and rapid spin, allowing it to potentially have dominant hazard control, it is also the only one of those unique mons to have a reliable form of recovery (recover).

High Base Physically defensive stats allow Avalugg-Hisui to check strong physical threats such as Dragonite.

With Strong offensive stabs in Rock and Ice combined with a high base attack stat Avalugg-Hisui is not a passive wall

Between Edgequake and Mountain Glade Avalugg-Hisui has decent coverage, it also has access to curse and Body press in order to utilise its sky high defensive stat.
Sturdy and heavy duty boots alongside good attacking options can give Avalugg-Hisui a small role as a revenge killer as it is guaranteed to live any singular hit.

I like its design : )

Cons:
View attachment 520692

While Avalugg-Hisui does have strong offensive stats and good physical natural bulk as a defensive pokemon it is balls, it is 4x weak to one of the best offensive typings in fighting, while also packing a weakness to edgequake and water.

If its awful defensive typing wasn't enough, you might be fooled into thinking that at least Avalugg-Hisui can take on the other types fairly well, this train of thought however likely stops once it is realised that Avalugg-Hisui has 36 base Sp. Def. Once that is factored into consideration alongside the fact that Avalugg-Hisui will perish almost instantly when faced with a strong special attacker who will hit it neutrally hopefully for the sanity of the user, the thoughts of using Avalugg-Hisui will also perish instantly too.

Despite having a solid offensive ability in Strong Jaw it is nearly useless on Avalugg-Hisui with the only relevant move being boosted being Crunch. This should hopefully put to bed any dreams of using more offensive variants, alongside its terrible speed stat of 38.

Because of its dreadful speed stat Avalugg-Hisui will only outspeed pokemon such as Torkoal, this is an upgrade over regular Avalugg, but that is the equivalent of saying that getting shot in three limbs is an upgrade over getting shot in four limbs

Although it has a good set up option in Curse, it is impossible to find good set up opportunities as every relevant team will have a multitude of ways to instantly annihilate Avalugg-Hisui, bolstering Avalugg-Hisui's two best stats also doesn't do much for patching its weaknesses.

A weakness to rocks makes Avalugg-Hisui reliant on HDB as a spinner, this prevents it from using items such as leftovers, besides it is very unlikely Avalugg-Hisui will actually be able to get a spin off in the first place, it also doesn't help that it is weak to common hazard setters such as Great Tusk, Glimmora and likely Heatran+Lando-T.

I changed my mind, It looks dumb and I don't like its design : (


Terra Potential:
If you are deranged enough to use Avalugg-Hisui then you will likely need to Terra it in order for it to be useful, Compared to Regular Avalugg Terrad Avalugg-Hisui is superior arguably, you are trading 10 spdef for 10 attack, 10 speed, rocks and rock stab.

Terra Fighting can be utilised for Stab on Body Press alongside a typing which will still die in the face of Psychic and Fairy types, but you were likely dying to those anyways as they are commonly special attackers. Terra Fighting lets you actually semi reliably take on Physical Threats with Avalugg-Hisui's insane physically oriented stats such as Great Tusk, Lando-T, Kingambit and Dragonite.

Terra Ground can be utilised for Edgequake stab alongside a much better defensive typing which will allow Avalugg-Hisui to be able to actually switch into common physical threats.

Terra Fairy can be utilised to give Avalugg-Hisui a resistance to Fighting instead of a 4x weakness, it gives Avalugg-Hisui a weakness to Poison and Steel which both are not top tier offensive typings, this terra could allow Avalugg-Hisui to not perish against 6 of the enemies team members.

Terra Rock can be used to delude yourself into thinking you added a Garganacl to your team instead of Avalugg-Hisui, I'm not quite sure why you would want to do this option but it is probably fun.

Potential Sets:

Three Attacks:
Avalugg-Hisui @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Sturdy
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Stone Edge
- Mountain Gale
- Recover
- Earthquake

Rather than attempting to use Avalugg-Hisui for utility you could instead lean into its decent attacking attributes, If you really insist on using Avalugg-Hisui, although it will be very hard to find an opportunity to not only get it on the field, but actually force a switch theoretically Avalugg-Hisui is a hard pokemon to swap into for most teams. It can also act as a revenge killer with a plethora of tools to hit scary sweepers such as Dragonite and Roaring Moon who cannot muscle their way past sturdy+heavy Duty Boots.

Utility

Avalugg-Hisui @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Sturdy
Tera Type: Fairy/Ground
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Mountain Gale/Earthquake
- Recover
- Stealth Rock


What makes Avalugg-Hisui Unique? It has Hazard control and recovery, combined with Tera Fairy and it might be able to actually utilise its utility within a game., although it is a hefty investment to use your Tera, if you were planning on using Avalugg-Hisui you were also likely planning on using it as your Tera option. Earthquake could be utilised over Mountain Gale if you truly want to accept the role of Avalugg-Hisui as hazard control, using Earthquake lets it not get walled for eons by Gholdengo, unless it has an air balloon...

Curse

Avalugg-Hisui @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Sturdy
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Curse
- Mountain Gale
- Recover
- Body Press

Avalugg-Hisui Is a cursed pokemon, as such it is appropriate to consider using a curse set to make sure that not only you, not only your opponent but Avalugg-Hisui themselves will know that Avalugg-Hisui is a cursed pokemon. Compared to Regular Avalugg, Avalugg-Hisui is able to use a higher attack stat combined with a unique stab option in Mountain Gale to deal more damage after multiple curse boosts, You can also utilise Body press and terra fighting to drop a potential nuclear bomb upon an unsuspecting individual, if you manage to sweep with Avalugg-Hisui it will also likely be very funny.

Verdict

Avalugg-Hisui is a unique pokemon. It is also a bad pokemon. You have to use your terra or you are in a 5v6 in 99% of games, in 50% of games you are also in a 5v6 even after you tera your Avalugg-Hisui. It is Plausible that it gains a minisicle niche below even that of regular Avalugg due to its unique traits combined with being a surprisingly potent revenge killer, but if you somehow manage to create a team where the missing piece of the puzzle is Avalugg-Hisui then I highly recommend deleting your team and trying again.

Avalugg-H is only “good” on Trick Room. Which is terrible considering how bad Trick Room is in singles. That’s the end of the story.

 

[Melons-N-Soda]

Can't wait for some tier higher than it deserves to hog this in a few shifts cause SPEEEEN.

 

[War Incarnate]

I have to ask myself what kind of drugs the people behind PLA were on when they made this.

First, they give it Strong Jaw which is basically complete shit on this mon ngl. Then they give it a "sig" which would probably be half-decent on any other mon but is truly completely useless on it once again. And then they give it Ice/Rock and chop its already miserable special defense by 10 points in exchange for a completely useless +10 in Atk and Spe.

This is probably one of the few regional variants [hell, even the only one] that is worse than the base. That's an achievement you don't want to bear. It's a shame considering it has a badass design,

Can't wait for some tier higher than it deserves to hog this in a few shifts cause SPEEEEN.

Also yeah no idt anyone is really that down bad for spinners to the point where they're gonna hog this shitmon just because they need spinners.

watch this mon suck so badly that it becomes worse than Untiered

 

[Magcargo]

Do we know if Mountain Gale is boosted by Strong Jaw? Probably isn't but could be a nice option as a strong nuke button.

I don't think this Pokemon is THAT bad in a vaccum. 127 Atk + 184 Def, strong utility options in Spin and SR, decently strong STAB options in Strong Jaw boosted Ice Fang, Stone Edge, psuedo STAB on Crunch (which is nice vs spinblockers like Gholdengo and Dirge), and Recover are all pretty nice traits despite its dismal typing. That being said, the decision to increase this Pokemon's speed in exchange for Special Defense strikes my as one of the weirdest decisions GF has ever made, considering this Pokemon would likely only be used on trick room where it would want lower speed. I guess outspeeding Slowbro, Slowking, Garganacl, Toxapex, and Hatterene is a cool perk, though not worth making this Pokemon even frailer on the special side lol

Overall, probably not OU viable without Tera but I could see it doing ok in lower tiers as a hazard remover / setter with a bit more depth than its regular cousin thanks to its unique traits like Strong Jaw Crunch and Stealth Rock.

 

[Just_Aaron]

Shouldn't Ice Fang be mentioned at least? After Strong Jaw it barely weaker than Mountain Gale and has a higher accuracy

 

[Loginator]

I have to ask myself what kind of drugs the people behind PLA were on when they made this.

First, they give it Strong Jaw which is basically complete shit on this mon ngl. Then they give it a "sig" which would probably be half-decent on any other mon but is truly completely useless on it once again. And then they give it Ice/Rock and chop its already miserable special defense by 10 points in exchange for a completely useless +10 in Atk and Spe.

This is probably one of the few regional variants [hell, even the only one] that is worse than the base. That's an achievement you don't want to bear. It's a shame considering it has a badass design,

Also yeah no idt anyone is really that down bad for spinners to the point where they're gonna hog this shitmon just because they need spinners.

watch this mon suck so badly that it becomes worse than Untiered

+10 Attack is definitely not useless. As bad as this Pokémon may be it’s certainly a lot more suited for Trick Room offense then regular Avalugg despite the increased speed.

 

[War Incarnate]

+10 Attack is definitely not useless. As bad as this Pokémon may be it’s certainly a lot more suited for Trick Room offense then regular Avalugg despite the increased speed.

eh maybe it's not useless but realistically outside of TR it's never gonna use it outside of that since it's still so slow that it'll just die before it gets to use that attack stat.

And while I guess it wouldn't be too bad on TR offense, it's just like... why would I it when Ursaluna exists and is an actual mon outside of TR? Its flaws are too extreme and too apparent outside of TR to be ever worth it. Ok, maybe having hazard removal and hazard setting in one slot is something I imagine a few teams would appreciate. But still, that niche is not enough to make it worth using and I feel like if you were to use TR with the goal of winning you'd use actually good mons to fulfill that option [i.e: Great Tusk].

 

[Loginator]

eh maybe it's not useless but realistically outside of TR it's never gonna use it outside of that since it's still so slow that it'll just die before it gets to use that attack stat.

And while I guess it wouldn't be too bad on TR offense, it's just like... why would I it when Ursaluna exists and is an actual mon outside of TR? Its flaws are too extreme and too apparent outside of TR to be ever worth it. Ok, maybe having hazard removal and hazard setting in one slot is something I imagine a few teams would appreciate. But still, that niche is not enough to make it worth using and I feel like if you were to use TR with the goal of winning you'd use actually good mons to fulfill that option [i.e: Great Tusk].

Ofc it’s not going to be used at all in OU but neither will regular Avalugg. It might have a niche in the very low tiers as an offensive mon under Trick Room like Crabominable.

 

[Eeveeto]

With Tera Dark + Strong Jaw Crunch, it in theory could work as a spinner in TR teams that have Rock weak Mons...
In practice, you are better of using Hatterene + Glastrier or Crabominable.

This guy went extinct for a reason :(

 

[Ryomathekillers]

Shouldn't Ice Fang be mentioned at least? After Strong Jaw it barely weaker than Mountain Gale and has a higher accuracy

Realistically I don't think Ice fang is notable enough as an alternative to mention, giving up sturdy for a lowered power Mountain Gale isn't really worth it., even if it is more accurate it is still an inaccurate move. If you are using strong jaw in trick room, Mountain Gale is still also likely worth using not only because of the power but the 30% Flinch chance which will save you more often than ice fang's better accuracy.

There's no reason not to at least add it to the list so I will, but imo the move won't see use

 

[Loginator]

Realistically I don't think Ice fang is notable enough as an alternative to mention, giving up sturdy for a lowered power Mountain Gale isn't really worth it., even if it is more accurate it is still an inaccurate move. If you are using strong jaw in trick room, Mountain Gale is still also likely worth using not only because of the power but the 30% Flinch chance which will save you more often than ice fang's better accuracy.

There's no reason not to at least add it to the list so I will, but imo the move won't see use

Glad to know this wasn’t another useless signature move.

 

[Clarkinator]

I still can't believe they didn't give this guy any more biting moves. They give coverage to everything nowadays but not for H-Avalugg, an infamously terrible pokemon even when it was new

 

[Eeveeto]

I still can't believe they didn't give this guy any more biting moves. They give coverage to everything nowadays but not for H-Avalugg, an infamously terrible pokemon even when it was new

I mean, Ice-Dark (Strong Jaw Crunch) is a move combination a notorious OU Mon has. In the previous generation another Ice-Dark Mon was also good with just those moves (it rarely used Low Kick).

Hisuian Avalugg has a really good movepool, both offensive and defensive. Its the signature move, the Stats and the defensive typing what makes it terrible, Movepool in general is the one good thing it has (outside of physical Stats of course).

 

[Cheryl.]

I still can’t believe they wasted better Icicle Crash on a mon with 38 Speed lmao

 

[Clarkinator]

I mean, Ice-Dark (Strong Jaw Crunch) is a move combination a notorious OU Mon has. In the previous generation another Ice-Dark Mon was also good with just those moves (it rarely used Low Kick).

Hisuian Avalugg has a really good movepool, both offensive and defensive. Its the signature move, the Stats and the defensive typing what makes it terrible, Movepool in general is the one good thing it has (outside of physical Stats of course).

Its movepool diversity isn't itself the problem, it's that they gave it an ability it can do nothing with beyond the two usable moves it learns that it boosts. They could have given it some other ability that would help it in a similar manner. Or, had they given it, idk, Psychic Fangs and a few others, the ability would make sense.

The way they did it almost makes me wonder if they forgot to give it any biting moves. This is on top of Mountain Gale already being slightly stronger than SG-boosted Ice Fang (albeit with low accuracy and effectively no secondary effect), so it's not like it critically needed strong Ice STAB.

 

[Dreadfury]

Honestly, I've been thinking about it a bit and I legitimately don't think this mon is quite as atrocious as everyone expected.

Morkal's been talking about this set a bit and I can see some legitimate merit to using it:

It's a bit selfish in that you really want to use your Tera on it, but this mon's dual STABs are surprisingly brutal, hitting pretty much everything but Steel-types like Magearna and Golden Joseph (and we know Magearna's days in OU are very numbered) super effectively. It's a physical wall of the most extreme caliber, but it's not passive in the slightest even without much investment since it has naturally-high Attack and excellent STABs. And unlike Tusk, this thing's got serious longevity thanks to Recover.

I'm not implying it's a god-tier mon or anything, but it has a legitimate niche and might be worth exploring. Nothing in OU really does what it does, and I'm curious to see what the guy who managed to make Luxray work in OU can pull off with this guy.

 

[Loginator]

Honestly, I've been thinking about it a bit and I legitimately don't think this mon is quite as atrocious as everyone expected.

Morkal's been talking about this set a bit and I can see some legitimate merit to using it:

View attachment 521760
View attachment 521761

It's a bit selfish in that you really want to use your Tera on it, but this mon's dual STABs are surprisingly brutal, hitting pretty much everything but Steel-types like Magearna and Golden Joseph (and we know Magearna's days in OU are very numbered) super effectively. It's a physical wall of the most extreme caliber, but it's not passive in the slightest even without much investment since it has naturally-high Attack and excellent STABs. And unlike Tusk, this thing's got serious longevity thanks to Recover.

I'm not implying it's a god-tier mon or anything, but it has a legitimate niche and might be worth exploring. Nothing in OU really does what it does, and I'm curious to see what the guy who managed to make Luxray work in OU can pull off with this guy.

I think this mon is really best as a tank. It can take even the strongest super-effective hits and do a ton of damage back. Sturdy might be worth considering for this reason.

 

[Magcargo]

Honestly, I've been thinking about it a bit and I legitimately don't think this mon is quite as atrocious as everyone expected.

Morkal's been talking about this set a bit and I can see some legitimate merit to using it:

View attachment 521760
View attachment 521761

It's a bit selfish in that you really want to use your Tera on it, but this mon's dual STABs are surprisingly brutal, hitting pretty much everything but Steel-types like Magearna and Golden Joseph (and we know Magearna's days in OU are very numbered) super effectively. It's a physical wall of the most extreme caliber, but it's not passive in the slightest even without much investment since it has naturally-high Attack and excellent STABs. And unlike Tusk, this thing's got serious longevity thanks to Recover.

I'm not implying it's a god-tier mon or anything, but it has a legitimate niche and might be worth exploring. Nothing in OU really does what it does, and I'm curious to see what the guy who managed to make Luxray work in OU can pull off with this guy.

Strong Jaw Crunch is probably better, hits Ghost like Gholdengo on the switch and has better neutral coverage with Ice.

I did fight this Pokemon on a Trick Room team once and I gotta say, I couldn't have asked for a better Pokemon for my Urshifu-RS to setup on and sweep with lol.

I agree its likely not that bad, but I don't think this is the meta for it. 4x weakness to Fighting / Steel & addition weaknesses to Ground and Water are not good traits to have when fighting hazard setters like Samurott-H and Landorus-T that have these tools. I think its regular cousin is better equipped as a spinner in the current meta.

 

[ChrystalFalchion]

If this thing wins worlds I will dye my hair pink and get a Nickleback chest tattoo

 

[TMaster23]

If this thing wins worlds I will dye my hair pink and get a Nickleback chest tattoo

I wouldn’t make that promise, if I were you. Doubles VGC is a very different world than Smogon OU Singles. This thing could be absolutely surprising in the right circumstances. I know that Trick Room is way more common in VGC than OU Singles, and this thing does thrive under Trick Room. Additionally, and I don’t know if it does work like this or not, since Serebii lists the target as “Self,” but if Mountain Gale does spread damage in Doubles, Avalugg-H immediately has a use in VGC as a spammer of spread Ice-type STAB under Trick Room.

tl;dr: don’t count this out of Worlds. Just because it’s dogshit in Singles doesn’t mean it’s absolutely useless everywhere else.

 

[TMaster23]

I wouldn’t make that promise, if I were you. Doubles VGC is a very different world than Smogon OU Singles. This thing could be absolutely surprising in the right circumstances. I know that Trick Room is way more common in VGC than OU Singles, and this thing does thrive under Trick Room. Additionally, and I don’t know if it does work like this or not, since Serebii lists the target as “Self,” but if Mountain Gale does spread damage in Doubles, Avalugg-H immediately has a use in VGC as a spammer of spread Ice-type STAB under Trick Room.

tl;dr: don’t count this out of Worlds. Just because it’s dogshit in Singles doesn’t mean it’s absolutely useless everywhere else.

And let’s not forget that Avalugg-H is the only Pokémon that gets the full benefits from both Snow and Sand. It can fit on either team and receive a defense buff of your choice. I could absolutely see an AV set on a Sand team actually being able to take some hits and deal damage back. I could also see it being the most physically bulky Pokémon in existence under Snow + Aurora Veil. There’s options here, particularly in Doubles, but options nonetheless.

 

[Armarogue soldier]

Am I late to comment on this? I hope not.

Wow, a lot of people really hate this thing don't they? or at least how GameFreak treated it. It's a shame too, I'm a fan of ice types and the idea behind H-Avalugg interests me with it referencing how glaciers moved rocks around on the continents. But I came up with something that might tip the scales a bit.

Thin Ice set
Avalugg-Hisui @ Heavy-duty boots
Ability: Sturdy
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpD / 4 Atk
Impish Nature
- Mirror coat
- Mountain Gale
- Recover
- Body press

Bet you all forgot that this thing gets mirror coat eh? This set is honestly good for one thing and that's eliminating a powerful special attacker if you set it up right. H-Avalugg REALLY didn't need that -10 points in its base special defense, but this set (slightly) remedies that. The trick is to bait the opponent into sending out a special attacker to capitalize on the weaker special defense. Use mirror coat and they'll go first, and if it's a move that hits only once, sturdy will activate so long as you're at full heath and you're guaranteed to KO the opponent. Body press is there to threaten dark types that would otherwise negate the strategy, taking advantage of Avalugg's massive defense stat.

Admittedly, this set shouldn't be taken that seriously, but it's a valid option if you're looking to make your opponent look like a fool. Ideally you'd want a sandstorm brewing and trick room up so you can heal off most of the damage that you'll inevitably accrue from the special attack H-avalugg just took.

 

[malomyotismon]

Am I late to comment on this? I hope not.

Wow, a lot of people really hate this thing don't they? or at least how GameFreak treated it. It's a shame too, I'm a fan of ice types and the idea behind H-Avalugg interests me with it referencing how glaciers moved rocks around on the continents. But I came up with something that might tip the scales a bit.

Thin Ice set
Avalugg-Hisui @ Heavy-duty boots
Ability: Sturdy
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpD / 4 Atk
Impish Nature
- Mirror coat
- Mountain Gale
- Recover
- Body press

Bet you all forgot that this thing gets mirror coat eh? This set is honestly good for one thing and that's eliminating a powerful special attacker if you set it up right. H-Avalugg REALLY didn't need that -10 points in its base special defense, but this set (slightly) remedies that. The trick is to bait the opponent into sending out a special attacker to capitalize on the weaker special defense. Use mirror coat and they'll go first, and if it's a move that hits only once, sturdy will activate so long as you're at full heath and you're guaranteed to KO the opponent. Body press is there to threaten dark types that would otherwise negate the strategy, taking advantage of Avalugg's massive defense stat.

Admittedly, this set shouldn't be taken that seriously, but it's a valid option if you're looking to make your opponent look like a fool. Ideally you'd want a sandstorm brewing and trick room up so you can heal off most of the damage that you'll inevitably accrue from the special attack H-avalugg just took.

Ye it basically exists as an obligitory mon to be terrasalized or 0 point in using a pokemon with a mariad of weaknesss when it is supposed to be a defensive juggernaught. The stat changes are another area they did it dirty, lets make it slightly faster (who cares it's still slow as a glacier anyways), and make it have more attack but have it's special defence be deoyxs-n level of frail. In all honesty if it actually had some ability that neautralizes all it's weaknesses at the cost of having no ressistances, it would be an intresting mon for being absurdly tanky physically, thats no passive in the slightest with two very spamable stab types with a solid movepool.
As it stands just terrastalzing it and using a better typing it get things done, but the opertunity cost as well as X pokemon doing the same thing maybe not better but with out all the mariad of caviats to getting it going means this thing is a relic of the ice age in ou but hey thats what lower tiers are for right?

 

[Mr. 475]

Quite possibly one of the worst pokemon ever conceived in terms of competitive play. All that bulk in defense amounts to nothing because it's weak to so many common physical attackers, and it's pitiful sp def means it can't even hold out for 1-2 turns against sp attackers. It's absolutely useless. If you want something that can live long enough for rapid spin/stealth rock, this thing shouldn't even be your 3rd option as it would need boots or sash+probably terra just to survive lol. And who wants to waste their terra just for hazard removal...?!?