The Ice-type has been regarded as one of the weakest types in Pokemon and, to be honest, that title is pretty valid. While Ice-type moves are a great tool in a Pokemon’s arsenal, actually carrying the type can prove to be very detrimental defensively.
When it comes to weaknesses, the Ice-type has four which is a lot for one type. When it comes to resistances, it only has one: itself. That automatically makes Pokemon with only the Ice-type innately weak defensively.
While most Ice-types carry another type to offset that and give it a few resistances to work with, the Pokemon on this list have been cursed with that atrocious defensive typing. Regardless, some of them have managed to be quite strong in the competitive scene in their own rights.
10 Glalie (Low Tier)
Glalie kind of makes this list by default; there are exactly ten fully-evolved pure Ice-types as of Generation VIII. That should tell you that it’s not exactly great for competitive battling. It’s a jack-of-all-trades in the worst way possible as everything about is merely OK; its stats are 80 across the board.
That means that it can’t reliably play any specific role on a Pokemon team. Its abilities don’t help as “Ice Body” is hardly useful, “Inner Focus” is too situational, and “Moody” relies a bit too much on RNG. Not even a Mega Evolution could get it out of the lower tiers of competitive play.
9 Eiscue (Low Tier)
Eiscue has a competitive niche like no other, but it’s been called nothing more than a gimmick. It’s pretty easy to exploit if its opponent knows what they’re doing. Its signature ability, “Ice Face”, acts very similarly to Mimikyu’s “Disguise”. It can take a free hit with no damage, but that only works for physical moves; they still take damage regularly from special moves.
It replenishes in hail, so it, in theory, works as a persistent physical wall, but breaking it also drops its defenses in exchange for better Speed which gives free room to set-up. That said, Eiscue’s base stat total isn’t great regardless, and one well-placed special move could knock it out cold.
8 Glaceon (Low - Mid Tier)
It’s far from the best Eeveelution viability-wise, but it does have a great 130 Special Attack – tied for the best among them with Espeon. The thing is, Espeon can take advantage of that just a bit better.
Espeon has superior speed making it a better sweeper while Glaceon is supposedly a tank with its good defenses. But as mentioned, that pure Ice-typing does not do it any favors there. Still, it’s a serviceable special attacker with good STAB moves and a decent ability in “Snow Cloak”, as well as the “Wish-Protect” combo typically expected from most Eeveelutions.
7 Cryogonal (Low - Mid Tier)
Among Ice-types in general, Cryogonal might be the best utility Pokemon of the bunch. It’s got a wide array of useful status moves like “Rapid Spin”, “Knock Off”, “Defog”, “Toxic”, and “Recover”, as well as nice STAB moves like “Freeze-Dry” and “Blizzard”.
It’s also got great Special Defense at 135 and, while its “Levitate” ability isn’t great on paper, it certainly helps to add a Ground-type immunity to the otherwise non-existent pool of resistances for a pure Ice-type. However, it has no Defense to speak of on the physical side, so players should be careful and prepare checks for its weaknesses.
6 Vanilluxe (Low - Mid Tier)
Despite its reasonably high base stat total, Vanilluxe is not the most reliable Pokemon for most other purposes. Stat-wise, it’s got good Special Attack, but other than that, it can’t really take a hit and it can’t really execute its attacks fast enough. If there’s one thing that gives Vanilluxe the viability it has, though, it’s its ability “Snow Warning”.
Upon entry, Vanilluxe will summon hail and, while hail teams are the least common weather-based team by far, it can play that role, if not anything else. It might have been considered the best of its kind for a bit, but Alolan Ninetales swiftly took that honor for itself with its access to “Aurora Veil”.
5 Beartic (Low - Mid Tier)
It’s been untiered on Smogon in every generation it’s appeared in, but it’s always been a pretty good option for weather teams – specifically hail and rain. That’s due to a pair of pretty good abilities: “Slush Rush” and “Swift Swim”. Both make it quite fast in hail and rain, respectively. While its Speed is atrocious at 50, it can boost it to be a pretty decent hail or rain sweeper from its good 110 Attack.
Defensively, it falls into that same pattern of having good bulk but suffering from the pure Ice-type’s defensive woes. If you plan on improving its attacking capabilities further with a held item, prepare to take tons of “Stealth Rock” damage.
4 Avalugg (Low - Mid Tier)
It’s somewhat unfortunate that Avalugg is pegged to be a defensive wall, again, due to the poor typing. It is essentially the opposite of Cryogonal in that it’s a complete physical wall while having no marbles in the special end.
It’s also like Cryogonal in that it can play utility with moves like “Rapid Spin”, “Toxic”, and “Recover”, and STAB moves like “Icicle Spear” and especially “Avalanche”. “Body Press” works particularly great with it as well, thanks to its spectacular Defense. It’s also got the “Sturdy” ability as an option, so in case it gets hit with a stray special attack or super-effective move at full HP, it can still execute whatever it needs to execute.
3 Regice (Low - Mid Tier)
Despite its 50 Speed, Regice is surprisingly seen by some run as an Ice-type sweeper. Consider it a Legendary version of Cryogonal, if you will, as its main schtick competitively is its incredible 200 Special Defense. But again, that typing doesn’t help its cause. Fortunately, it’s got other roles it can play in a Pokemon team.
Regice can be a sweeper mainly due to its access to “Rock Polish”, which doubles its Speed and gets it to outspeed Dragapult, should you invest EVs into that stat. It helps when you have a good 100 Special Attack and a wide array of STAB and coverage moves, such as “Ice Beam”, “Blizzard”, “Thunderbolt”, “Focus Blast”, and the like. If you want to keep that Speed boost alive, go for its “Clear Body” ability which prevents stat drops.
2 Glastrier (Mid - High Tier)
If Regice is a Legendary version of Cryogonal, consider Glastrier that for Avalugg: an incredibly slow, pure Ice-type tank. However, Glastrier is much better in many regards. For one, Glastrier also has good Special Defense at 110, so it’s not like it’s only good on the physical side defensively. It’s also got “Chilling Neigh” as an ability which is essentially “Moxie” with a different name. It boosts its already great Attack by a stage when it knocks out an opponent. That works great alongside its wide array of STAB and coverage moves.
Its fusion with Calyrex as the Ice Rider forme has gained notoriety as a Trick Room sweeper in the Ubers competitive tier. It’s not a stretch to think Glastrier by itself could do just that in regular competitive tiers.
1 Galarian Darmanitan (Mid - High Tier)
Speaking of Ubers, Galarian Darmanitan has made a name for itself there as arguably the best Ice-type sweeper in competitive Pokemon with Ice Rider Calyrex being a close second. What sets it apart is its two choices of abilities: “Gorilla Tactics” and “Zen Mode”.
“Gorilla Tactics” is great as it’s essentially a Choice Band as its ability, boosting its already great 140 Attack. Its “Zen Mode” ability far surpasses regular Darmanitan’s as it boosts its strongest stats instead of switching them from physical to special. No matter which of the two it carries, it works great with the regular STAB moves and nice coverage moves it has access to – especially since it gains the Fire-type and therefore STAB for its “Zen Mode”.
NEXT: The 10 Best Pure Water-Type Pokemon
