Which move is better for Latios; Ice Beam or Thunderbolt?

Question

Latios
Nature: Gentle (+Sp. Defense -Defense)
Ability: Levitate
Item: Latiosite
Moveset-
Ice Beam or Thunderbolt
Calm Mind
Luster Purge
Dragon Pulse

Comments

This is for competitive, right? What format?

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Don't use Luster Purge, use Psychic instead. :P

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Dragon Pulse also covers Dragon types and you get STAB from it. Don't replace it. Also, perhaps Toxic can be useful to you.

Answer 1

Icebeam all day! covers up weaknesses against dragon and bug types icky* and I'll admit while freezing your opponent isn't as likelyas paralysis it is more useful and with Icebeam you could replace dragon pulse with thunderbolt, not only is thunderbolt more powerful it also knocks those dual flying types out of the air as well aswater types for a little added bonus.

Comments

Ice isn't supereffective against bug...

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Well... it should be but either way more useful still because of dragones* and he/she should still probaly take out dragin* pulse for thune-der* bolt but only if they choose to use icicle* beam as well.

Answer 2

I'd suggest both! You already have a fairly strong STAB attack in Luster Purge, so replace Dragon Pulse with Ice Beam! Ice Beam covers Dragon types anyway, so use that to cover Dragons and other types! Thunderbolt is useful also to get the famous BoltBeam combo, so use that in your first slot.
Moveset:
Latios @ Latiosite
Ability: Levitate
Gentle Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Calm Mind
- Luster Purge
- Ice Beam

Answer 3

Usually, I think a lot more movesets will have Thunderbolt over Ice Beam. However, I think Ice Beam will be better for your Latios for two main reasons:

1) Ice Beam can counter one of Latios' weakness, Dragon, whereas Thunderbolt does not have any
2) I know you already have Dragon Pulse for Dragon coverage, but that's strictly for Dragon types. Ice can cover 4 types oppose to Electric which can only cover 2. For one of Electric's coverage, Flying, Ice-type works well against - so even if the Pokemon is dual-typed to another type resisting Ice, at least it will deal normal damage. For the water coverage of Electric, it's really just Walrien's evolution line, Cloyster, Lapras, and Dewgong to worry about, so that's 4 out of the entire Ice population. Saying again, you have Ice to counter Grass, Ground, Flying, and Dragon to increase the population of Pokemon you can counter.

Hope I helped! :)

Comments

I see a lot more Lati@s with Ice Beam on the ladder. :P