Base Stats: 95/117/184/44/46/28
Abilities: Own Tempo / Ice Body / Sturdy
Relevant Moves: Avalanche, Body Press, Ice Spinner, Icicle Crash, Iron Defense, Rapid Spin, Recover, Roar
Pros:
-Amazing Physical bulk alongside Recover makes Avalugg an incredibly sturdy physical wall that can withstand even strong super-effective hits. 184 base defense also grants it a powerful Body Press.
-Avalugg is one of the limited hazard removal option thanks to its access to Rapid Spin as well as being one of the few spinners that can threaten Brambleghast with its Ice STAB.
-It's far from passive thanks to its high Attack and strong Body Presses, not to mention it can use Roar to deal with bulkier Setup Sweepers.
-Snow gives it a 50% boost to its already massive defense stat, making it able to survive ludicrously powerful physical moves such as a Life Orb and Swords Dance boosted Lucario Close Combat. It also pairs well with Ice Body, granting it useful passive recovery and snow can be set up easily by Slowking, which also covers Avalugg's weaknesses pretty well.
Cons:
-Pure Ice is a horrible defensive typing, only giving Avalugg one nearly useless resistance in Ice while making it weak to common Fighting types like Gallade and Slither Wing. It also can make it weak to Fire, Rock and Steel coverage and most notably will usually force it to use Heavy-Duty Boots.
-Abysmal Special Defense makes Avalugg extremely easy to force out especially since it can let dangerous special attackers like Gengar and the Rotom forms in easily.
-Other flaws such as being vulnerable to Status and 4MSS means Avalugg generally needs a lot of support and will only fit on very bulky teamstyles.
Tera Types:
Due to its pure Ice typing weighing it down, Avalugg likes using Terastallization to improve its type matchups. Quite a few types have potential depending on what you need Avalugg to cover for in a pinch.
-Fighting, while not the best defensive type outright, gives Avalugg a power boost on its already strong Body Press while removing a crippling Fighting weakness and granting it resistances to the common U-Turn and Knock Off. However, it still leaves it with an undesirable matchup against some Fighting types like Hawlucha, Flamigo and Gallade.
-Steel being the king of defensive types is obviously a good option on Avalugg giving it very good resistances across the board. However, Steel's weaknesses are very bad for Avalugg specifically since it can't use the type's specially useful resistances and is still left with weaknesses to Fighting and Ground, which can be crippling for a physical wall.
-Water is a very good neutral type, leaving it with only weaknesses to Electric and Grass and the only physical attacker that uses one of those types is Pawmot which already hits you super effectively before Tera, meaning you can take on pretty much every physical attacker to some extent. It also makes Avalugg perform extremely well against Rain's physically-based threats such as Barraskewda and Floatzel. While it doesn't have any big drawbacks, Water also doesn't bring many interesting resistances to the table, but it's a good pick if you want to limit your weaknesses.
-Finally, Ghost is a very interesting Tera type for Avalugg as it allows it to counter the metagame's many physical Fighting types extremely well, dealing with both of Slither Wing's STABs, being able to take Gallade's Psycho Cut unlike a type like Poison and also dealing with Pawmot, Lycanroc-Dusk, Hawlucha and others. However, Ghost leaves it with an annoying Knock Off weakness and an even worse matchup against the Ghosts trying to block its Rapid Spin.
Viable Sets:
Avalugg @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Ice Body / Sturdy
Tera Type: Fighting / Steel / Water / Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Recover
- Ice Spinner / Avalanche / Icicle Crash
- Body Press / Roar
- Rapid Spin
Avalugg has many different small variations it can make to its set to fit its team's niche. While Sturdy can be useful to let it withstand a strong hit in a pinch, with how common Slowking's Chilly Reception and how well this same pokemon pairs with Avalugg, Ice Body can get a lot value overall. Its tera types each have their advantages as listed above, the type you pick should depend on your team's need. As for its moves, Recover is obviously a mainstay to maintain Avalugg's health throughout a game. Next up is a choice of Ice moves which could be considered mandatory to prevent Avalugg's Rapid Spin from getting blocked and to hit the many Flying types in the meta. Ice Spinner is the most consistent, but Icicle Crash can ease ranges against Brambleghast and Salamence when Intimidated. Finally, while Avalanche has the lowest initial power and doesn't hit foes hard on the switch-in, its doubled power after getting hit makes it stronger and more consistent than the other options when trying to challenge physical attackers one on one. Next slot is usually dedicated to Body Press to hit Steel and Rock types that underestimate The Table. However, Roar can also be used to prevent threatening sweepers like Espathra from getting a free turn against Avalugg which can be game-changing. Your final move will often be Rapid Spin since it's doubtful your team will have other removal options you'd rather use if you're already using Avalugg. Iron Defense could find a spot on this set as well since it allows Avalugg to keep up with setup sweepers, ultimately winning out with its boosted Body Press, but it'd require getting rid of your Ice move or Rapid Spin which are both tough to sacrifice.
Other Options:
-A set attempting a sweep with Curse could be worth considering, but is severely flawed due to Avalugg's low special defense and vulnerability to status. Curse would not be as useful on a standard Rapid Spin set either since the defense boosts are too slow to keep up with Swords Dance users.
-A specially defensive set to try to make Avalugg function as a mixed wall, though its Special Defense is so low, the only thing this really accomplishes is making it not instantly crumple to special attacks. This set could also be paired with Mirror Coat to attempt to lure special attackers.
Example Team:
This team uses Avalugg in its best teamstyle, Stall. While it helps answer a majority of physical threats, it leaves the special side to Blissey and relies on Altaria to cover for Fighting types. Quagsire beats most physical setup sweepers besides Mold Breaker Haxorus, which is another niche Avalugg shines in as Haxorus is usually quite threatening. It also has Slowking to help cover some weaknesses and set Snow and finally Bisharp for some much appreciated priority support and as a backup answer to Espathra and Hatterene
Conclusion:
Avalugg is a very extreme pokemon with many incredible traits and many crippling flaws. As such, if it finds its way on a team, it will be on very bulky Balance, Semi-Stall or Stall builds where it can be supported by pokemon like Blissey and Slowking to make up for its problems. It requires smart teambuilding, but Avalugg can perform extremely well in the current format if you're willing to put in the effort to make it work.
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