Alolan Vulpix & Ninetales

Standing at #37 and #38 in the National Pokédex, two more day-one entries into the Alolan form listings, Vulpix and Ninetales, the Fox Pokémon species, were awarded a complete makeup change from their original Kanto appearances, along with a type-changing to occur in this new upcoming region. Where once flames were burning now comes a chilling sense of calm and beauty, as two of the original first-generation Fire-Type Pokémon now turn into the first ever Ice/Fairy types of the entire franchise.

Alolan and Kanto Vulpix.

Alolan and Kanto Ninetales.

The changes in aesthetics and partly their typing as well, are mostly related to the adaptation to a new environment, as Alolan Vulpix and Ninetales settled themselves in the icy mountain peaks of Alola after coming along to the island with humans, thus becoming Ice-Types, just like their real-life counterparts, the Snow Foxes.

Originally based on the ‘Kitsune’, a nine-tailed fox mystical creature from Japanese folklore, their orange-brown and golden fur, respectively, now bears a cold snow-white, and icy-blue shade of color, with light blue, and snow-white on their paws, and their eyes turn icy-blue as well, conferring perfect camouflage in a snowy environment. They are also able to produce ice crystals from their fur, using them to block attacks, or as a form of attack itself, and, of course, as a means to lower their body temperature, since they don’t fare well in the heat. There are no main anatomical changes, as the number of tails on each of them is maintained, but the tufts on their heads and tails look slightly different, more curly and unruly. Their height and weight are the exact same as the Kanto form, them being 3'07'' and 43.9 lbs, respectively. As far as we know, and following the same trend as before, there are no apparent gender differences, just as there are none between Kanto’s form – it could be said, however, that the Alolan form is more “beautiful” in general.

Known to be vengeful and to bear grudges on those who mistreat it, Kanto Ninetales’ strong intelligence and mystical power, which as often referenced in PokéDex entries allows it to live for a thousand years, gave it access to some Psychic and Ghost-type moves in the past. This mystical power, seemingly contained in their multiple tails, translates into the Fairy-typing it acquired, as Alolan Ninetales have a gentle temperament instead, being known to aid humans in distress, but still being territorial and punishing any threats to their domains, which are revered sometimes as holy grounds. Therefore, we can expect a healthy batch of Ice and Fairy moves at its disposal.

Will the ever-present Drought sun-bringer in current and past sun teams keep its popularity in the new metagame? Will we be surprised with a coveted new way of bringing weather to the battlefield with a possible upcoming hidden ability? And let’s not forget the new potential viability of Alolan Vulpix on a Little Cup scenario. Either way, the Dragon-slaying potential is strong with this one, and it certainly is a very cool and welcome addition to our PokéDexes and team rosters. Watch out, Alolan Exeggutor!

Game Data

Contrary to a few of the other newly revealed Alolan forms (namely Exeggutor, Raichu, or Marowak), Ninetales’ base unevolved form, Vulpix, also received the Alolan form 'makeover' – we don’t know yet for sure whether all Alolan forms will (or will not) get their base forms changed, or even if we can evolve a transferred non-Alolan form Pokémon into their Alolan forms, so for now, we can only speculate based on the information we know to this date, which is, at best, somewhat controversial. If we’re able to evolve the original Vulpix into Alolan Ninetales, much like the Cubone and Pikachu shown evolving into their Alolan form respective evolutions with a green aura background instead of the regular blue one, it could be done with the presence of an Icy Rock in the overworld vicinity, much like how Eevee evolves into Glaceon, meaning we would have to take our beloved Vulpix all the way up to the icy mountain peaks of Alola for its alternate evolution. Or, since we know its base form also exists as its Alolan counterpart, instead of evolution we might be able to capture it instead in that very same location, meaning the only means of obtaining Alolan Vulpix would be in those icy peaks, and then evolve it into Alolan Ninetales, which could be done via level-up, since regular Vulpix evolves into Ninetales through means of a Fire Stone (I guess they could come up with an Ice Stone-kind of item as well. Does Nevermeltice ring a bell?). Only time will tell, as far as evolution/obtaining method comes. There could be an entirely new way of achieving evolution in Alola, just waiting to be revealed.

Alolan Ninetales' type effectiveness/resistances.

Original Vulpix/Ninetales have Flash Fire as their regular ability, and Drought as their hidden ability, the latter being by far the most commonly used in Competitive battles. Both their Alolan forms were given Snow Cloak instead, an ability that grants a permanent evasiveness boost under the hail weather condition, as long as the Pokémon is on the field. Although hidden abilities being present on Alolan forms are as of now only a mystery on the horizon, Snow Warning would undeniably be a welcome addition to its arsenal. But alas, we digress. And again, this is mere speculation; we can only talk about what we know, so the newly acquired Snow Cloak ability, along with the typing weaknesses and resistances will be analyzed and discussed below in further detail on the VGC Strategy section.
However, right up front, we can expect a 2x Fire, 2x Rock, 2x Poison and 4x Steel weakness, while, notably, Fighting-type moves become neutral against it. Furthermore, Alolan Ninetales will resist Ice, Bug and Dark, also packing the Dragon-type immunity granted by this unique Ice/Fairy combination. Fairy-typing compliments Ice-type surprisingly well, covering one of Ice-type’s most common weakness (Fighting), and granting some useful resistances to some common typings, namely Dark-type, for the ever common Sucker Punch or Knock Off, and, of course, and most notably, the immunity to the Dragon-type. Having Fire as a weakness is not great, since this is a very common offensive typing, and the Rock-type weakness can bite, since moves like Rock Slide are omnipresent in VGC (although Rock-types themselves aren’t too common), and also leaves it vulnerable to Stealth Rocks. Steel and Poison-type moves are more present nowadays since the rise of Fairy-types in Gen 6, but hopefully Alolan Ninetales will be able to have some answers to them with its move learnset, granted it isn’t drastically changed.

Taking into account that, as far as we know, all Ninetales share the same base stat total through the generations, it’s fairly safe to assume this applies to Alolan Ninetales as well; however, it’s also safe to expect a slight rearrangement of said stats. An increase of the base stat total would be welcome, of course, but for balancing factors either such an increase wouldn’t occur, or it would have to be applied to Kanto Ninetales as well; besides, the base stats have been seen to increase but only temporarily during Mega Evolution, and not in any form changes – hence, only a stat rearrangement being expected. Following the same trend as Mega-Evolutions and other existing forms, I would expect the HP stat to remain unchanged; however, due to the nature of ice itself, I predict the base Defense stat to be slightly lower than in its original form, as both Ice and Fairy-types are fairly defensively frail on the physical side, being these numbers then shifted into, desirably, the Sp. Attack stat, which is in need of some love since it has a meager 81 base stat on its Kanto form. This would be appreciated since most Ice and Fairy-type moves I can imagine it gaining access to would be specially-based. The base Sp. Defense and Speed are decent at base 100 each, and the Attack stat is still usable at base 76 (or even if it’s slightly lowered as well), in case it gets access to moves such as Ice Shard (this is based on the fact that it’s stated they are able to produce ice crystals from their bodies and shoot them like bullets, as stated on the flavour text on the official website; this could refer to an entirely new move though).

Kanto Ninetales' base stat totals.

Alolan Stat

HP: 73

ATK: 76

DEF:60 (-15)

SP. ATK: 96 (+15)

SP. DEF: 100

SPEED: 100

TOTAL: 505

This is, understandably, a rather hard topic to discuss, since it could follow any path really, as far as occurring stat changes go, but I’m not expecting any major mind-blowing changes in stats that would completely alter the way Alolan Ninetales functions, compared to the original Kanto form – an offensively Special-based attacker, with good speed and Special Defense stats to boot. Not as big a change as the complete polarizing change in its typing, anyways.

As for the move learnset, and Egg-moves as well, with such a major type change in effect, some major changes are to be expected as well, but are equally hard to guess. I’d say we can expect most Fire-type moves to be swapped with a mix of Ice and Fairy-type moves, but most of the Psychic and some of the Ghost-moves Kanto Ninetales had access to, such as Extrasensory, aren’t to be discarded since, after all, Alolan Ninetales still possesses that very same mystical power and magical origin that is so many times referred to exist throughout the PokéDex entries along the years. I could also see some more utility moves surfacing, such as Reflect and Light Screen, due to the reflective properties of ice itself, as well as keeping some of its old utility tricks like Hypnosis, Disable and Confuse Ray, accompanied by the loss of moves such as Dark Pulse and possibly Hex, since they represent the exact opposite of the Fairy-typing nature. Again, this is heavy speculation once more. On the breeding section, something similar is expected to occur, where all Fire-type moves would be switched with Ice and Fairy-type moves, and possibly gaining access to some new support move alternatives from the Fairy side of things, making Alolan Ninetales more varied in its role on any team it is part of.

VGC Strategy

I’ll be focusing more on the analysis of the evolved form, since it’s what would be seemingly more commonly used in online battles, but still give mention to Vulpix in our beloved Little Cup environment.

With a completely revamped typing, Alolan Vulpix and Ninetales look very promising and brimming with newly-found potential. Once being the only non-legendary option to set-up the sun thanks to its Hidden Ability, they now hide from the sun atop ice-covered mountain peaks. Packing a new and unique typing that would make any wannabe Dragon-type counter look green with envy, I strongly feel that Alolan Ninetales will be a relevant and prevalent offensive force Pokémon in Gen 7 thanks to both its looks and typing, not to mention the nostalgia factor. However, it’s fairly hard to predict the moves it would pack, since it’s a completely different typing from its base form. Once again, heavy speculation coming ahead.

Ninetales @Life Orb

Ability: Snow Cloak

Nature: Timid

IV: 31/X/31/31/31/31

EV: 252 Sp. Attack, 4 Sp. Defense, 252 Speed

- Ice Beam/Icy Wind/ Blizzard (/Freeze Dry?)

- Moonblast / Dazzling Gleam

- Extrasensory/Psyshock

- Protect /HP Ground (/ Ice Shard?)

With a bit of a lackluster ability, its best use could be while paired with a hailstorm-setting partner, making it slightly harder to hit if you want to test your luck, and it’s even possible to further bolster its evasion by having it hold a Brightpowder (if wou wanna go that route, which is at best gimmicky). But most importantly, pairing it with Snow Warning allows Alolan Ninetales to spam Blizzard all night long – a more than fair substitute for the Kanto form’s Heat Wave under the sun. Alternatively, and following a more conventional route, holding a Life Orb would help alleviate the slightly lower offensive presence granted by its base stats, allowing it to hit way harder with both of its great offensive stab moves – and thankfully, there’s plenty of options for spread moves as well – you’re not limited to Blizzard’s unreliable accuracy since Dazzling Gleam is also available.

Thanks to its Fairy-typing, Alolan Ninetales doesn’t fear Fighting-types and actually has a stab move to answer to them, and also non-stab against any Poison-type granted it still gets access to Extrasensory and/or Psyshock (which we don’t know yet at this point that it will – but we hope, of course). Dragon-types are absolutely terrified of this clever fox for obvious reasons, and while not having any direct answers against Fire-types, a suitable Hidden Power could represent a possible solution. Steel-types however pose a huge threat and there’s really no evident way of dealing with them, so packing HP Ground would be a good option, working against both Fire, Poison, and Steel-types, otherwise Alolan Ninetales has to heavily rely on one of its team partners to deal with said Steel-types – and as we know, it’s never good to be fully reliant on a team partner without having some sort of a backup plan in Pokémon battles, for those situations where you’re backed into a corner.

Icy Wind would be an interesting option to help slow down faster opponents making your time easier in dealing with faster teams, but would be detrimental otherwise under a Trick Room scenario – one in which Ninetales wouldn’t fare well already due to it being a fairly fast Pokémon. Freeze Dry would be also interesting, granting further type-coverage against Water-types, and it wouldn’t be too farfetched to imagine it would learn such a move (it forms ice crystals with its body after all). Speaking of ice crystals, Ice Shard is also an interesting option to consider just for the access to priority, since there’s always those times where all that’s left to take is a sliver of the opponent’s health before the battle is over.

Overall, and much like its Kanto counterpart, Alolan Ninetales is severely crippled by faster and harder-hitting opponents, and one must be weary of Bullet Punch, which is now a severe threat against it due to the 4x Steel weakness coupled with priority (and of course, the theorized lower physical defense stat), making a huge dent on Alolan Ninetales’ HP. This is a fairly common move since the rise of the Fairy-type, and it’s sure to bring about its downfall on the field!

Little Cup

Vulpix @Life Orb

Ability: Snow Cloak

Nature: Timid

IV: 31/X/31/31/31/31

EV: 252 Sp. Attack, 4 Sp. Defense, 252 Speed

- Ice Beam (/Freeze Dry?)

- Dazzling Gleam

- Extrasensory

- Protect /HP Ground (/ Ice Shard?)

Pretty straightforward moveset, basically following exactly the same premise as Alolan Ninetales does – fast but frail, with decent offensive damage-dealing capabilities, coupled with good type-coverage. Alolan Vulpix loses its niche on Little Cup as a staple on Sun teams, but is still a fairly good candidate for an offensive role nonetheless.

That’s all for now for Alolan Vulpix and Ninetales, but surely lots more will come in the near future. All comments, different strategies and new ideas are more than welcome, so don’t be shy and get to your keyboards to leave your thoughts on the comments! :)

Sources

The Official Pokémon Website pages for Alolan Vulpix and Ninetales:

http://www.pokemon-sunmoon.com/en-us/pokemon/alolan-vulpix/

http://www.pokemon-sunmoon.com/en-us/pokemon/alolan-ninetales/

The Bulbapedia page for Ninetales:

http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Ninetales_(Pok%C3%A9mon)

Pokémon Database’s Dual Type Chart:

http://pokemondb.net/type/dual