Which Ice attack to use for Ludicolo?

Question

For my (upcoming) VGC 2015 team I am using a Ludicolo. You've just gotta love the Carefree Pokémon, and that's why I'm using him. Fake Out support, potential Burns, Rotom-W counter… he does them all. The only thing I can't decide is what Ice attack to use for him. At first I was gonna go Ice Beam like everyone else to slam Garchomp and MegaMence, but as I was scrolling through his moveset page, I saw that he gets Icy Wind via Move Tutor. I don't have any form of speed control, so I thought that he was bulky enough to live without a strong Ice attack. However, it has its downsides. Let me explain:

Ice Beam

+) hits common Dragons such as Hydreigon, Garchomp and Salamence supereffectively, and OHKOs the latter two with a little chip damage.
+) is a stronger move in general

Icy Wind

+) offers useful speed control, especially for T-Tar and Aegislash
+) allows me to hit tw oopponents, meaning that DoubleDragon leads have to be more wary
+) unexpected, giving me the edge and hopefully forcing switches for the likes of Lando and Garchomp, who don't want to eat what they think is an Ice Beam

-) blocked by Wide Guard
-) not nearly as strong as Ice Beam, missing out on vital KOs
-) gives Milotic the Competitive boost and Bisharp the Defiant boost

So I know that Icy Wind is probably the inferior option, but I think it best to at least consider it. Thanks for your feedback!

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If you want Colo's teammates, here thay are (note that this is till in the early development stages and is nowhere near complete):

Mega Manectric
Landorus
Aegislash
Mega Tyranitar

Answer 1

Whenever I'm thinking about what move to use in VGC, I always go to the old http://3ds.pokemon-gl.com/battle/oras/#double to see what people run. And of all Ludicolo's, 90% of them run Ice Beam, while only 1.6% of them run Icy Wind. It would seem to be that the common consensus is Ice Beam is vastly superior to Icy Wind. The question is, why?

If we go to Ludicolo's "When Victorious" page, some of the most prominent threats it defeats that don't defeat it more than it defeats them are Landorus, Thundurus and Amoonguss, all three of which are best hit with Ice Attacks, as outside of rain, Scald fails to OHKO landorus, according to the smogon calc's pre-entered spreads

• 68 SpA Ludicolo Scald vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-T: 108-128 (65.8 - 78%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

So clearly Ice Attacks need to hit hard to maximize Ludicolo's use. So Ice Beam is chosen. Additionally, under rain, Ice Beam gives Ludicolo the chance to beat Mega Salamence. Speaking of which, since Ludicolo is so fast under rain it doesn't get too great of a benefit from Icy Wind. This is why Ludicobro is almost always paired with Politoed for drizzle support. And you know what Politoed can learn? Icy Wind. Politoed gets other status moves like Helping Hand and Perish Song too, so it's a far better support 'mon than Ludicolo, which is better for bulky offense.

Finally, as you said Bisharp was a problem, and Bisharp, as of now, is extremely threatening towards your team. The Bisharp issue isn't Ludicolo's fault but more of a fault of the team, but I'm sure you can find away around it as you continue to teambuild.

TL;DR: Ice Beam>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Icy Wind and I love Ludicolo

Comments

Ludicobro… I see what you did there :)

Answer 2

Of those moves and from the positive and negative things you posted I would go with Ice beam.
You posted no negative things about ice beam and two positive things. Icy wind has three positive things and three negative things about icy wind, one negative thing for each positive thing.
But do be warned I do not have much experience with ice types and ice type moves, this is just my opinion on what you should use. Hope I helped!