Pokémon Champions Snow Teams

Snow is the defensive weather. Set by Snow Warning as its user switches in, it lasts five turns, raises the Defense of every Ice-type on the field by 50%, makes Blizzard accurate, and doubles the Speed of Slush Rush users. It deals no damage of its own. What it provides instead is Aurora Veil, a screen that reduces both physical and special damage for as long as snow is falling. Every other weather asks how much extra damage you can deal. Snow asks how much you can afford to take.

A snow team is judged on what it does with its first two turns. The setter brings the weather, Aurora Veil goes up, and from that point onward the team trades at a discount the opponent has to remove before they can play normally. Behind the screen you want accurate spread damage and a Slush Rush attacker whose doubled Speed lets it finish what the screen kept alive. As with every ability-set weather, the setter restores snow whenever it returns to the field, so a second one is wasted space.

Snow is strongest against teams built to win damage races, since Aurora Veil alters the arithmetic those teams depend on. It carries two dependencies rather than one, which is unusual: the weather can be overwritten by any competing ability, and the screen can be removed even while the weather holds. Taunt on the setter prevents both before either has begun. Opponents who break through tend to do it by attacking the setup turns rather than the team itself.

Not strictly, though without it snow is the narrowest of the four weathers. The Defense boost reaches only Ice-types, the Speed boost only Slush Rush users, and unlike sand there is no passive damage accumulating in the background. Aurora Veil is what converts snow from a narrow buff into an advantage the whole team shares. A snow team built without it should have a very specific reason for being in snow at all.