>>31851147>>31851230The point is that there are roughly 5 useful ice type moves.
If more pokemon learned Icicle Crash, we'd be seeing more of them. Dragon Dance Lapras might jump up in usage (in low ladder) and Feraligatr might be that much more useful.
Ice Shard is 40bp, but it's also +1 Priority. I don't know how it takes some people 20 years to realize this, but priority is huge. Priority outside of Psychic Terrain completely invalidates one of the most important stats in the game for offensive teams. It should go without saying but Ice type as an offensive typing is excellent.
Freeze Dry has the best offensive coverage of any move in the game. I should have to explain the importance of this but it would make bulky waters drop in viability like a rock if more mixed or special attackers could learn this move.
Icicle Spear is, admittedly, not a good move. However, it has niche uses (like I said in my initial post) as an excellent anti-lead tool, cleanly removing even sashed variants of Azelf, Garchomp, Landorus-T, Gliscor, Smeargle, and Aerodactyl with only two hits, with the ability to remove bulkier leads like Celebi and Hippowdon after 3-5 hits. It also breaks Multiscale and KO's Dragonite after just two hits if the opponent has good hazard control (which they will if they're running Dragonite competently). There aren't many Pokemon that can make use of this outside of the two Pokemon that already use it, though.