Pokémon Alola Ninetales

[Colonel M]

Ninetales

Abilities: Snow Cloak / Snow Warning (Available)
Stats: 73 HP / 67 Atk / 75 Def / 81 SpA / 100 SpD / 109 Spe

Moveset:

Alola Vulpix

Level Up

Start - Powder Snow
L4 - Tail Whip
L7 - Roar
L9 - Baby-Doll Eyes
L10 - Ice Shard
L12 - Confuse Ray
L15 - Icy Wind
L18 - Payback
L20 - Mist
L23 - Feint Attack
L26 - Hex
L28 - Aurora Beam
L31 - Extrasensory
L34 - Safeguard
L36 - Ice Beam
L39 - Imprison
L42 - Blizzard
L44 - Grudge
L47 - Captivate
L50 - Sheer Cold

TMs

TM05 - Roar
TM06 - Toxic
TM07 - Hail
TM10 - Hidden Power
TM13 - Ice Beam
TM14 - Blizzard
TM17 - Protect
TM18 - Rain Dance
TM20 - Safeguard
TM21 - Frustration
TM27 - Return
TM32 - Double Team
TM42 - Facade
TM44 - Rest
TM45 - Attract
TM48 - Round
TM66 - Payback
TM70 - Aurora Veil
TM77 - Psych Up
TM79 - Frost Breath
TM87 - Swagger
TM88 - Sleep Talk
TM90 - Substitute
TM97 - Dark Pulse
TM100 - Confide

Egg moves

Egg - Freeze-Dry
Egg - Hypnosis
Egg - Flail
Egg - Spite
Egg - Disable
Egg - Howl
Egg - Agility
Egg - Encore
Egg - Moonblast
Egg - Power Swap
Egg - Secret Power
Egg - Charm
Egg - Tail Slap
Egg - Extrasensory

Alola Ninetales

Level Up

Start - Dazzling Gleam
Start - Dazzling Gleam
Start - Imprison
Start - Nasty Plot
Start - Ice Beam
Start - Ice Shard
Start - Confuse Ray
Start - Safeguard

TMs

TM03 - Psyshock
TM04 - Calm Mind
TM05 - Roar
TM06 - Toxic
TM07 - Hail
TM10 - Hidden Power
TM13 - Ice Beam
TM14 - Blizzard
TM15 - Hyper Beam
TM17 - Protect
TM18 - Rain Dance
TM20 - Safeguard
TM21 - Frustration
TM27 - Return
TM32 - Double Team
TM42 - Facade
TM44 - Rest
TM45 - Attract
TM48 - Round
TM66 - Payback
TM68 - Giga Impact
TM70 - Aurora Veil
TM77 - Psych Up
TM79 - Frost Breath
TM85 - Dream Eater
TM87 - Swagger
TM88 - Sleep Talk
TM90 - Substitute
TM97 - Dark Pulse
TM99 - Dazzling Gleam
TM100 - Confide

Egg moves

Egg - Freeze-Dry
Egg - Hypnosis
Egg - Flail
Egg - Spite
Egg - Disable
Egg - Howl
Egg - Agility
Egg - Encore
Egg - Moonblast
Egg - Power Swap
Egg - Secret Power
Egg - Charm
Egg - Tail Slap
Egg - Extrasensory

Overview

A Pokemon walled by a Fire-type that has nine tales...

...Well this is awkward.

Alola Ninetales is a Pokemon that was given an alternative form to its regular form in Alola. With it brought the gift of Snow Warning - an ability that was once only available to Auroros and (Mega) Abomasnow. Gen VII brought a few new toys to Hail teams in the form of Aurora Veil, an attack that gives Reflect and Light Screen in one move while Hail is on the field, and Slush Rush abilities for Alola Sandslash and Beartic. The increased Speed is very noteworthy because it bypasses a lot of Pokemon that Ninetales could not outspeed before such as Terrakion, Garchomp, and Salamence. The Alola Form has some pretty cool (pun intended) things going on for it.

Alola Ninetales is still plagued by a myriad of issues, though. For starters its quadruple Steel-type weakness cannot be ignored. This makes it prone to Bullet Punch users such as Metagross and Scizor. Furthermore, the Stealth Rock weakness is ever-present on Alola Ninetales. This cuts into Alola Ninetales's longevity. Finally, lacking moves that hit Fire- and Steel-types is a major issue for it as well. Still, Alola Ninetales has a couple neat tricks going for it that we're going to discuss in-depth.

Potential Movesets:

[SET]
name: Utility
move 1: Aurora Veil
move 2: Freeze-Dry
move 3: Moonblast
move 4: Hidden Power Fire / Encore
item: Light Clay / Leftovers
ability: Snow Warning
nature: Timid
evs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
ivs: 0 Atk

[SET COMMENTS]
Moves

• Aurora Veil gives Alola Ninetales a great niche in being the fastest and most reliable user of the move thanks to Snow Warning and high Speed.
• Freeze-Dry gives Alola Ninetales a fighting chance against Water-types. This is best against Toxapex, who otherwise resists STAB Moonblast, or Pelipper, Quagsire and Mantine, who is quadruple weak to Freeze-Dry.
• If Water-types are of no major concern Blizzard can be used for a stronger STAB Ice-type attack. Considering Rain's popularity at this time, though, Blizzard probably won't be seen as a superior option anytime soon.
• Moonblast gives Alola Ninetales an option to hit Pokemon such as Kyurem-B, Keldeo, and Tyranitar.
• Encore allows Alola Ninetales to take advantage of Pokemon who would use Alola Ninetales as setup bait and lock them onto attacks that don't necessarily harm Ninetales.
• Hidden Power Fire gives Alola Ninetales a way to prevent Scizor from switching in freely.
• Hidden Power Ground helps Alola Ninetales become as least susceptible to Heatran as possible.
• Hidden Power Water gets an honorable mention for handling Fire-types who otherwise really wreck Alola Ninetales.
• Hypnosis gives Alola Ninetales an option to attempt to cripple one Pokemon on the opponent's team; however, the 60% accuracy makes it a shoddy option.

Set Details

• Max Speed to allow Alola Ninetales to outspeed as many threats as possible while tying, at worst, with Kartana.
• Max Special Attack allows Alola Ninetales to hit as hard as possible. This prevents it from being potential setup bait from Pokemon such as Gyarados who, otherwise, could take advantage of weaker STAB Blizzards and set up on Alola Ninetales.
• Maximizing durability in place of offense is a valid option as Aurora Veil can allow Ninetales to survive an attack a bit easier.
• Light Clay helps maximize Aurora Veil's effect as long as possible.

Other Options

• Nasty Plot bolster's Alola Ninetale's offenses further, though its lack of coverage moves hinder such a setup.
• Power Swap can also help Alola Ninetales prevent being used as setup bait by swapping its offenses with the opponent.
• Safeguard can further protect the team from status. Also an okay option.
• RestTalk - if only for lasting longer. Not really recommended

Opinion

Aurora Veil, Snow Warning, Freeze-Dry, and decent typing help make Alola Ninetales a pretty chill Pokemon. It may not be a Pokemon that will remain in OU forever, though I could see it pop in and out every now and then to utilize some of its interesting perks. The common weaknesses of Fire, Rock, and Steel do not help Alola Ninetales. Furthermore, Alola Ninetales struggles a lot against Fire and Steel thanks to the lack of the diversity in its movepool.

 

[Colonel M]

I decided to provide some other things alongside it. Since Hail got a lot of buffs and Alola Ninetales can, in theory, fit some different types of teams I figured I would display some Pokemon that could take advantage of Alola Ninetales. Note that some of these Pokemon are not currently available or prevalent to the meta at this time, though things could always change further down the road.

Team Options

Heatran
Heatran is not a bad teammate. For starters Alola Ninetales can harass Water-types while Heatran can handle more threats such as Scizor. Since Fire-types may see Alola Ninetales as a free switch-in to spam Fire Blasts and Flare Blitz's Heatran can utilize Flash Fire to absorb for more damage.

Bulky Water-types
Considering some of the attacks that Alola Ninetales is susceptible to Steel- and Fire-type attacks, bulky Water-types make sense to use with Alola Ninetales. Rotom-W can cripple many physically offensive Pokemon while being a good pivot if necessary.

Setup Sweepers

Though not limited to just these Pokemon, setup sweepers are always Pokemon that appreciate dual screens. Pokemon like Mega Gyarados and other Dragon Dance users can utilize Aurora Veil to grab multiple Dragon Dances or survive long enough to sweep through a team. Water-types that setup like Manaphy and Keldeo love having increased durability when setting up just to help keep them healthy from revenge kills while also being difficult Pokemon to take down in the process. Zygarde is also worthwhile considering it has access to Coil and Dragon Dance.

Don't forget some other Support Pokemon!

Tapu Lele's Psychic Terrain can provide some breathing room against Bullet Punch while giving Ninetales a possible other move to utilize - Psyshock. Magnezone and Dugtrio are also great Pokemon because they can trap Pokemon that otherwise trouble Alola Ninetales too. Don't forget about Rapid Spin and Defog! Clearing entry hazards is a huge deal for Alola Ninetales, which can be done with Excadrill.

PLEASE DO NOT USE:

Slush Rush / Hail Abusers

While on paper these Pokemon sound great, they have many critical flaws running within the OU tier with Alolan Ninetales. For starters Ice is a terrible defensive typing that stacks a lot of nasty weaknesses. Fire-, Rock-, and Steel-types are very common with options like Fighting-type attacks not being too uncommon either. While Alolan Sandslash takes neutral damage from these, it also bears a problem of being a smidgeon too slow and a smidgeon too underpowering without the Adamant nature. Beartic is just a Pokemon that no one should realistically use as its coverage options are rather poor in spite of the Attack buff.

You should never seriously use the Slush Rush abusers in OU. Save it for the lower tiers where they may make a bigger impact.

 

[Bugzy]

Volcarona is a strong partner option for this mon imo, sets up on the steel types ninetales hates.

 

[Some random freak]

Nice Write-up but the final paragraph mentions Tapu Fini's Psychic Terrain when it's actually Tapu Lele that gets that terrain.

I'm looking forward to seeing hail teams this gen, however niche they may be.

 

[Colonel M]

Volcarona is a strong partner option for this mon imo, sets up on the steel types ninetales hates.

Definitely agree with you there. Volcarona is another excellent partner for Alola Ninetales. You definitely need Defog / Rapid Sping support in such a scenario, though chances are you're probably running it with Alola Ninetales anyway.

Nice Write-up but the final paragraph mentions Tapu Fini's Psychic Terrain when it's actually Tapu Lele that gets that terrain.

Thanks for the catch. Edited.

 

[Bugzy]

Thanks for the catch. Edited.

Fini is an option as well though, it defogs and set up sweepers like the protection from status that misty terrain brings.

 

[Kutscher]

this think is so good against rain teams, freeze dry is x4 effective against pellipper, kigndra, mega swampert and seismitoad (also hitting omastar really hard), but a big issue with this mon is the 4th movesloot syndrome, you really want nasty plot/blizzard/freeze dry/moonblast/hp fire/aurora veil, and the item choice is hard too, LO/Icy rock/light screen

 

[Trainer Au]

Hide

Abomasnow @ Focus Sash
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Mild Nature
- Ice Shard
- Blizzard
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Kyurem-Black @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Blizzard
- Outrage
- Draco Meteor
- Fusion Bolt

Ninetales-Alola @ Icy Rock
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Freeze-Dry
- Aurora Veil
- Moonblast
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Garchomp @ Lum Berry
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Outrage

Sandslash-Alola @ Life Orb
Ability: Slush Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Swords Dance
- Icicle Crash
- Rapid Spin

Latios @ Soul Dew
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Recover
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock

I've been running this Hail HO for a while, and it is extremely fun to use. Having two weather setters gives so much freedom, and Aurora Veil is insane with Sandslash:
252+ SpA Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Forretress (Alolan Sandslash) through Light Screen: 120-141 (41.2 - 48.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ SpA Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Forretress: 240-283 (82.4 - 97.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Forretress through Reflect: 141-166 (48.4 - 57%) -- 90.6% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Forretress: 282-332 (96.9 - 114%) -- 75% chance to OHKO

Sandslash is a monster. When I first saw it's typing I was sure it was going to be awful, but having resistances to Bullet Punch and Fake out, as well as having 120 base Def to stomach Sucker Punches, really make up for it's lackluster offensive typing. But even then it still gets by with Ice / Ground coverage, and hail canceling leftovers is extremely underrated. I think Hail will be able to survive in OU this gen, it was given some really cool new toys and the toys it already had are even better.

Still haven't been able to make beartic work though. It's best move to hit Aegislash is Night Slash, and Pheromosa still outspeeds him even with a Jolly nature and under hail. He also just lacks coverage moves in general (no Gunk Shot or Poison Jab to hit bulky fairies, best fighting move is Superpower). I can see him tearing up NU or something in the future with his new base 130 Attack coupled with Z-Hail.

 

[Gottim]

Hail has been a ton of fun this gen, and dare I say it, I think it's even better than sun.

Is Minerals the first utility ice type that works? Aurora veil works wonders even without running dedicated hail teams. Fairy/Ice really is a solid combo also aside from the obvious problems. I think it'll likely end up in UU where it can has potential to become a tier-defining force.

As far as hail as a whole goes, I'll gush about how amazing sandslash is when his own thread comes. I think Beartic will become a bigger threat once Aegi and Thermostat bid adieu to OU, since that will help lessen his issues with 4-moveslot syndrome. +2 Attack with Ice stab, great coverage and +base 130 speed is terrifying.

 

[Ilhoon]

In my opinion Alolan Ninetales is easily the best competitive Alolan-mon.
I've been running this somewhat gimmicky set to great success.

Ninetales-Alola @ Psychium Z
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hypnosis
- Nasty Plot
- Ice Beam
- Moonblast

Psychium Z Hypnosis will have 100% chance to put the opposing mon asleep and give you a +1 speed boost. Then you get a free Nasty Plot on the switch in. Obviously the dual stab here gets rekt by a lot of steels, but other than that I've swept teams very easily with this set. Literally nobody ever expects it.

 

[Bugzy]

In my opinion Alolan Ninetales is easily the best competitive Alolan-mon.
I've been running this somewhat gimmicky set to great success.

Ninetales-Alola @ Psychium Z
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hypnosis
- Nasty Plot
- Ice Beam
- Moonblast

Psychium Z Hypnosis will have 100% chance to put the opposing mon asleep and give you a +1 speed boost. Then you get a free Nasty Plot on the switch in. Obviously the dual stab here gets rekt by a lot of steels, but other than that I've swept teams very easily with this set. Literally nobody ever expects it.

That's pretty interesting.

Alola Tales teams are easily what I have played the most so far and these are my observations
-M Sableye is great for stopping veil from getting defogged, also immune to brick break
-Alola Sandslash is shockingly good, he has a few really bad weaknesses but a ton of resistances so it's easy to grab a swords dance, beartic has access to a priority move and more power right off the bat but overall I think alola slash is better
-Fire types like Alola Marowak or Volcarona are great partners for killing steels
-while alola slash is good it feels like you want more hail support if you play him and that's hard to work in imo considering how terrible other snow warning mons are and it's hard to find a mon you really want to run the move hail on
-running alola tales with no slush rushers is perfectly fine, maybe even better, dual screens in one turn off an already strong mon is just good

 

[TheTMTrainerEffect]

In my opinion Alolan Ninetales is easily the best competitive Alolan-mon.
I've been running this somewhat gimmicky set to great success.

Ninetales-Alola @ Psychium Z
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hypnosis
- Nasty Plot
- Ice Beam
- Moonblast

Psychium Z Hypnosis will have 100% chance to put the opposing mon asleep and give you a +1 speed boost. Then you get a free Nasty Plot on the switch in. Obviously the dual stab here gets rekt by a lot of steels, but other than that I've swept teams very easily with this set. Literally nobody ever expects it.

Ice Beam over Blizzard? It makes sense if you plan on completely sweeping with Ninetales but I don't expect Ninetales to be in for more than a few rounds... definitely not beyond the scope of Hail leaving. Admittedly, I was super hyped for this mon but havn't got around to playing around with it so I wouldn't know if it could actually sweep with Alola-form stat buffs.

 

[Ema Skye]

In my opinion Alolan Ninetales is easily the best competitive Alolan-mon.
I've been running this somewhat gimmicky set to great success.

Ninetales-Alola @ Psychium Z
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hypnosis
- Nasty Plot
- Ice Beam
- Moonblast

Psychium Z Hypnosis will have 100% chance to put the opposing mon asleep and give you a +1 speed boost. Then you get a free Nasty Plot on the switch in. Obviously the dual stab here gets rekt by a lot of steels, but other than that I've swept teams very easily with this set. Literally nobody ever expects it.

Z-Status moves don't get perfect accuracy. You'll still get the speed boost but you'll keep Hypnosis' 60% hit rate.

 

[Pushinguplilacs]

Aurora veil is it's main boone. everything else is situational. I personally use the set in the OP with aurora veil/freeze-dry/moonblast/nasty plot

Frankly, I like what this mon can do, but as a sweeper it doesn't quite have what it needs. Maybe in a future game we'll get a fire type egg move (I don't see why it wouldn't...it is the same pokemon as ninetails vanilla) which would help out its sweeping potential considerably but until then it's only real use is support and dragon scaring. Dual screening in a single turn is nuts and it's ability to outspeed and one shot Garchomp and salamence is great, but I don't see this lovely staying in ou long. BL maybe, UU for god damn sure, but probably not OU for long.

That's pretty interesting.

Alola Tales teams are easily what I have played the most so far and these are my observations
-M Sableye is great for stopping veil from getting defogged, also immune to brick break
-Alola Sandslash is shockingly good, he has a few really bad weaknesses but a ton of resistances so it's easy to grab a swords dance, beartic has access to a priority move and more power right off the bat but overall I think alola slash is better
-Fire types like Alola Marowak or Volcarona are great partners for killing steels
-while alola slash is good it feels like you want more hail support if you play him and that's hard to work in imo considering how terrible other snow warning mons are and it's hard to find a mon you really want to run the move hail on
-running alola tales with no slush rushers is perfectly fine, maybe even better, dual screens in one turn off an already strong mon is just good

It might just be my luck showing, but I feel like not a lot of people realize defog removes screens. I've faced people with obvious defoggers that never tried to defog me because I don't use hazards when I have full 8 turn screens up. It might just be the hype train newbies in the lower rungs of the ladder but that seems like quite an oversight on their part.

And I've said in the past and I'll say again. If this mon gets used it's not going to be on a hail team. Maybe partial hail teams, but full hail is not gonna see use in upper tiers at least not successfully. NU/RU just got some nice hail sweepers if slush rush is allowed down there.

 

[WalpurgisnachtUr]

Why is Diancie-mega listed in the OP? It's not in the game files, it's basically unusable as of Sun and Moon.

No, I'm not talking about pre-pokebank inaccessibility. Diancite is actually NOT IN THE GAME FILES. You will not be able to trade diancite over from ORAS. I don't know why they did this, but it happened.

 

[Pushinguplilacs]

Why is Diancie-mega listed in the OP? It's not in the game files, it's basically unusable as of Sun and Moon.

No, I'm not talking about pre-pokebank inaccessibility. Diancite is actually NOT IN THE GAME FILES. You will not be able to trade diancite over from ORAS. I don't know why they did this, but it happened.

You can trade Diancie over, you can't trade Mega stones over so any mega stones not avaliable in game are not usable in sun and moon.

 

[Bugzy]

It might just be my luck showing, but I feel like not a lot of people realize defog removes screens. I've faced people with obvious defoggers that never tried to defog me because I don't use hazards when I have full 8 turn screens up. It might just be the hype train newbies in the lower rungs of the ladder but that seems like quite an oversight on their part.

Magic Bounce stops them from being defogged too.

 

[Pushinguplilacs]

Magic Bounce stops them from being defogged too.

That's true, but I don't run Magic bounce on my team with Alolan Ninetales. Like there's no logical reason not to defog them down. Unless these people are actually running Decidueye and skarmory without defog.

 

[WalpurgisnachtUr]

You can trade Diancie over, you can't trade Mega stones over so any mega stones not avaliable in game are not usable in sun and moon.

Same difference, diancie-m should not be listed in OP

 

[Kasualty21]

Why is Diancie-mega listed in the OP? It's not in the game files, it's basically unusable as of Sun and Moon.

No, I'm not talking about pre-pokebank inaccessibility. Diancite is actually NOT IN THE GAME FILES. You will not be able to trade diancite over from ORAS. I don't know why they did this, but it happened.

But it is in the game files, or at the very least I have 999 of them somehow

 

[Martin]

Aurora Veil is completely nuts. It outpaces quite a large portion of the meta with it's super nice base 109 speed and then proceeds to halve any damage it takes. It's easy to set up as it only takes one turn, and it means that this thing has a pretty big niche off of hail teams for its ability to not only put a check on opposing weather but also due to how immensely helpful for offensive teams Aurora Veil is. That said, I wouldn't ever sacrifice Freeze Dry on this personally because being able to come out on Pelipper, Kingdra and Ludicolo and threaten with a 4x SE attack is insanely useful in the role of weather disruption, and I have personally found myself very rarely clicking Blizzard due to Aurora Veil, Encore, Freeze Dry and Moonblast just all more regularly being useful. Therefore, my personal moveset slashing looks like this:

Ninetales-Alola @ Light Clay
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk OR
- Aurora Veil
- Freeze Dry
- Moonblast
- Encore / Hidden Power [Fire] / Blizzard

4 HP isn't divisible by 4 so I like that personally. The slashing is subjective as all fuck of course, but I find both Freeze Dry and Encore to be completely invaluble on this thing to the point that I have stopped running Blizzard or HP Fire on it with the exception of, like, one of my five teams where I really need HP Fire, but I can still see the pros of both of said moves I just plugged them into the last slot. You could maybe get away with subbing out Moonblast for Blizzard or HP Fire but mono ice coverage isn't nice and having a base 70 move as your strongest move risks becoming too passive.

When you mention Encore in the OP make sure to give a very special mention to SubToxic Aegislash as a target for this, as you are able to lock it into Sub and proceed to something that can do stuff with no real drawbacks--especially if you have Aurora Veil up to buffer against a double switch--which, in turn, forces 50:50s later on and scares them away from the thought of using Ninetales as Sub bait (which HP Fire doesn't do 'cause it literally needs a max roll to break Aegislash-Shield's Sub, and it means that in the event that it doubles in with you Ninetales can use Aurora Veil as it subs and then lock it in safely (which HP Fire doesn't do, as it needs an absolute max roll to break sub in one hit while also leaving you open for Toxic)).

 

[Pushinguplilacs]

Aurora Veil is completely nuts. It outpaces quite a large portion of the meta with it's super nice base 109 speed and then proceeds to halve any damage it takes. It's easy to set up as it only takes one turn, and it means that this thing has a pretty big niche off of hail teams for its ability to not only put a check on opposing weather but also due to how immensely helpful for offensive teams Aurora Veil is. That said, I wouldn't ever sacrifice Freeze Dry on this personally because being able to come out on Pelipper, Kingdra and Ludicolo and threaten with a 4x SE attack is insanely useful in the role of weather disruption, and I have personally found myself very rarely clicking Blizzard due to Aurora Veil, Encore, Freeze Dry and Moonblast just all more regularly being useful. Therefore, my personal moveset slashing looks like this:

Ninetales-Alola @ Light Clay
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk OR
- Aurora Veil
- Freeze Dry
- Moonblast
- Encore / Hidden Power [Fire] / Blizzard

4 HP isn't divisible by 4 so I like that personally. The slashing is subjective as all fuck of course, but I find both Freeze Dry and Encore to be completely invaluble on this thing to the point that I have stopped running Blizzard or HP Fire on it with the exception of, like, one of my five teams where I really need HP Fire, but I can still see the pros of both of said moves I just plugged them into the last slot. You could maybe get away with subbing out Moonblast for Blizzard or HP Fire but mono ice coverage isn't nice and having a base 70 move as your strongest move risks becoming too passive.

When you mention Encore in the OP make sure to give a very special mention to SubToxic Aegislash as a target for this, as you are able to lock it into Sub and proceed to something that can do stuff with no real drawbacks--especially if you have Aurora Veil up to buffer against a double switch--which, in turn, forces 50:50s later on and scares them away from the thought of using Ninetales as Sub bait (which HP Fire doesn't do 'cause it literally needs a max roll to break Aegislash-Shield's Sub, and it means that in the event that it doubles in with you Ninetales can use Aurora Veil as it subs and then lock it in safely (which HP Fire doesn't do, as it needs an absolute max roll to break sub in one hit while also leaving you open for Toxic)).

I'm hesitant to use freeze-dry outside of weather disrupting situations but the number of x 4 ice weaknesses there are even without freezedry and how many it adds...it's probably pretty reliable. And not being completely walked by toxapex is kinda important rn, it's basically on every team.

 

[13_luckynumber]

If you transfer a regular Vulpix over from gen VI, can it evolve into Alolan Nintetales? Strong Fire coverage will make this thing not a sitting duck against Steel types.

 

[machao11991]

If you transfer a regular Vulpix over from gen VI, can it evolve into Alolan Nintetales? Strong Fire coverage will make this thing not a sitting duck against Steel types.

Normal Vulpix will evolve into normal Ninetales no matter where you evolve it, so that wouldn't work.

Even if that is possible, you would still miss out on Freeze-Dry and Moonblast since those are Alolan-Vulpix's exclusive egg move.

 

[Aurinko]

I've been running this as a screener in a Volcarona based team and it's insane. 8 turns of Aurora Veil is enough for setting up and sweeping at least half a team - Dual Screens in one turn is huge. I typically sacrifice Ninetales at the end, inducing Hail once more, setting up Aurora Veil again with Mew, going for the Nasty Plot and for Mew's Z-move which induces Psychic Terrain, Baton Pass the boost to Volcarona and:

... watch Toxapex die to Volcarona's Psychic while still behind the Veil. It's beautiful.

edit: Which is not possible anymore since apparently, Mewnium-Z is unreleased. Thanks for nothing, GF.