HEATRAN

Heatran is a common threat in the 1v1 metagame,due to its ability to check threats like Mega Charizard X and Mega Charizard Y thanks to its ability Flash Fire, popular Steel-types like Mega Metagross and Magearna, other Fire-types like Victini, Fairy-types like Tapu Lele, and Sturdy Pokémon like Donphan,thanks to its Fire-Steel typing and its access to the moves Rock Tomb and Bulldoze.
Its typing is also amazing defensively,with resistances to common offensive types like Psychic,Dragon,Fairy and Ice.
Overheat is its preffered Fire-type STAB because of the high Base Power that both Fire Blast and Lava Plume lack,with Flash Cannon being its Steel-type STAB.It also has access to Taunt,being able to shut down stall opponents such as Jumpluff,and Will-O-Wisp,which gives slow Physical Attackers a hard time KOing it.Coverage slots include Rock Tomb,Hidden Power Ice and Earth Power that cover various threats.
Heatran's 4 times weakness to Ground-types is usually covered by the use of Air Balloon.
On the other hand though,Heatran gets demolished by fast Fighting-types such as Mega Lopunny and Mega Medicham that can outspeed and OHKO it with High Jump Kick,special walls like chansey that can succesfully stall out and defeat Heatran,and almost every Water-type in the tier since Heatran cannot touch them its STAB moves --although a Grassium-Z set with Solar Beam can be used to lure and defeat most Water-Types-
Sets:
Speedy Specially Defensive:
Heatran @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 120 SpA / 184 SpD / 204 Spe
Modest Nature
- Overheat
- Flash Cannon
- Rock Tomb / Bulldoze
- Earth Power / Hidden Power [Ice]
Set Comments:
Moves:
Overheat is Heatran's main STAB move,able to check threats such as Genesect,most Grass types except Mega Venusaur,and even KO most Sturdy Pokemon like Donphan and Magnezone after one Rock Tomb.
Flash Cannon is Heatran's secondary STAB move,that hits Rock types that resist Overheat such as Golem and Rhyperior.
Rock Tomb is the speed control move Heatran needs to beat Mimikyu and Sturdy Pokemon like Magnezone,Donphan and Crustle.
Bulldoze is also an option over Rock Tomb but it isn't preferred,due to the fact that it can't hit Flying-types and airborne Pokemon,most notably Mega Charizard Y.
Earth Power is a coverage move that allows Heatran to stand a chance against other Heatrans,50/50 Specially bulky Mega Aggron,and KO Rockium Z/Choice Specs Nihilego after 1 Rock Tomb.
Hidden Power Ice can also be used for a better matchup against Garchomp,Landorus-Therian and other Pokemon that are 4 times weak to Ice,although Earth Power is preferred for this specific set.
Set Details:
184 Special Defense EVs allow Heatran to take a Z-Zap Cannon from 252 Special Attack Modest Magnezone.
204 Speed EVs allow Heatran to outspeed 252 Speed Timid Magnezone,in order to beat it even if it uses Electroweb.
The remaining EVs are thrown into Special Attack with a Modest nature for bigger damage output.
Flash Fire helps Heatran counter almost every Fire type, since it absorbs Fire type moves.
Air Balloon is used to avoid getting oneshot by Ground-type moves
Usage Tips:
Send Heatran to battle if you expect the opponent to send their Sturdy, Fire-, Steel-, Grass-, Dragon-, Psychic-type Pokemon like Golem, Charizard, Magearna, Tapu Bulu, Kyurem-B, and Tapu Lele since Heatran can mostly defeat them. Against faster Pokemon like Charizard and the ones with Speed control moves like Golem, Donphan, and Magnezone start with Rock Tomb to outspeed them on the subsequent turns and follow up with the appropriate move to pickup the win. Send it to battle against Nihilego only if it has Earth Power in the set.
Be careful against Choice Specs or Fightinium-Z Kyurem-Black since both can OHKO you.
Team Options:
Tapu Koko,Magnezone,Thundurus-Therian and Tapu Bulu check Water-types that trouble Heatran and appreciate Heatran beating most Kyurem-Black variants and Sturdy Pokemon.
Tapu Lele and Mega Gardevoir check Fighting-types that otherwise trouble non-Will-o-Wisp Heatran.Especially Tapu Lele can beat most Water-types.
Kyurem-Black also appreciate Heatran checking Steel-types and both Mega Charizard forms,while also countering Garchomp and Scarf Kyurem-Black.
Garchomp (mostly Choice Scarf) shows some decent synergy since it counters Tapu Koko that troubles Heatran,while Heatran demolishes Ice-,Fairy- and Dragon-types that can OHKO Heatran with their super effective STAB moves. In addition to that, Heatran can also counter Porygon-Z and Genesect that tear through Garchomp with Hyper Beam and Ice Beam respectively.
Pokemon that can defeat Special walls like Chansey, Snorlax, and Blissey are highly desirable since Heatran has no way of defeating them. Mega Heracross is one such Pokemon that can get past these and as well as others such as Mega Gyarados, Mega Slowbro, Sawk, and Primarina which threaten Heatran. In return, Heatran checks both Mega Charizard forms and Mega Pinsir, that can easily beat Mega Heracross.
Speedy Physically Defensive:
Heatran @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 180 Def / 208 SpA / 120 Spe
Modest Nature
- Rock Tomb / Bulldoze
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power [Ice] / Earth Power
- Overheat
Set Comments:
Moves:
Rock Tomb is the speed control move Heatran needs to beat Mimikyu and Sturdy Pokemon.Bulldoze is also an option over Rock Tomb but it isn't preferred,due to the fact that it can't hit Flying-types and airborne Pokemon,most notably Mega Charizard Y.
Flash Cannon hits Rock types that resist Overheat such as Golem and Rhyperior.
Hidden Power Ice hits Ground types that are 4 times weak to it such as Garchomp and Landorus-Therian.
Earth Power can also be used over Hidden Power Ice to counter Nihilego (in which case Heatran needs to run 192+ SpA / 136 Speed to outspeed it after a Rock Tomb),but Hidden Power Ice is preferred here to mind game Landorus-Therian into whether he'll use Substitute or Rock Tomb,since this set is physically defensive.
Again,Overheat is Heatran's main STAB that hits Pokemon that are weak to it and KOs most Sturdy Pokemon after a Rock Tomb.
Set Details:
180 Defense makes Heatran take 252+ Attack Mega Metagross Hammer Arm
120 Speed outspeeds 252+ Speed Garchomp after a Rock Tomb
The remaining EVs are thrown into Special Attack with a Modest nature for bigger damage output.
Flash Fire helps Heatran counter almost every Fire type, since it absorbs Fire type moves.
Air Balloon is used to avoid getting oneshot by Ground-Type moves
Usage Tips:
Straightaway use Overheat against Mega Metagross if you predict it to be the standard set and Rock Tomb + Overheat against the Anti-Tapu Koko set.
Use Rock Tomb + Hidden Power Ice against regular Garchomp since most of them are using Choice items
Be careful against Mimikyu because they may use Substitute,which Rock Tomb does not break.
Pick Heatran against Special Attackers that cannot hit it super effectively like non-Focus Blast Tapu Lele and Porygon-Z or Physical attackers that lack a strong super effective move like Mega Charizard X.
Be careful against Mega Charizard Y because they may carry Focus Blast.
Pick Heatran against non-Choice Specs or Fightinium-Z Kyurem-Black.
Team Options:
Since this set counters every Mega Metagross Pokemon that lose to it such as Tapu Lele,Kyurem-Black,Tapu Fini,Tapu Bulu,Mega Gyarados, Mega Venusaur and all other Pokemon that are weak to its STAB or coverage moves appreciate Heatran checking this monstrous threat.
Pokemon that lose to Porygon-Z and Mega Charizard X also appreciate Heatran's help,as do Pokemon that are weak to Sturdy Pokemon like Greninja.
Heatran pairs well with Ground-types that beat Tapu Koko,Magnezone and Thundurus-Therian etc.,that can hit Heatran with their powerful STAB Z-Moves (or Specs boosted in Thundurus-Therian's case) and OHKO it,Psychic-,Fairy- and Flying-types that hit strong Fighting types that can OHKO Heatran,and Pokemon that beat Water-types such as Tapu Koko,Tapu Bulu,Magnezone etc.
Strategy Comments:
Other Options:
Heatran can also run a Will-O-Wisp Defensive set,that will allow it to beat Physical Attackers like slow Sawk,Physical Hoopa-Unbound,Weakness Policy Avalugg etc.
Grassium-Z Z-Solar Beam can be used to lure in and defeat Water-types such as Primarina, Tapu Fini and Mega Swampert, with the downside of losing to Ground-types due to the lack of Air Balloon.
Fire Blast can also be used for reliability against Substitute users avoiding the Special Attack drop,but with a significant lack in power.
Dark Pulse allows Heatran to beat some Ghost-types and bulky Psychic-types such as Cresselia and possibly Mega Latias,but to use it you'll have to dismiss Earth Power or Hidden Power Ice,both of which are more useful.
Taunt can be used to succesfully break through Mega Venusaur and other Leech Seed stall pokemon like Jumpluff and Whimsicott.
Lastly,Heatran can use a Choice Scarf set that can successfully lure in and defeat Tapu Koko and Jumpluff but this set loses to other Pokemon Heatran usually beats such as Magnezone and Choice Scarf Kyurem-Black, as well as every Sturdy Pokemon
Checks and Counters:
Water Types: Water types like Tapu Fini,Primarina,Mega Gyarados and Mega Slowbro can succesfully beat Heatran by either setting up and then killing it,or hit it with a powerful Specs boosted super effective STAB move/Water type Z-move.
Fast Fighting types: Pokemon like Mega Lopunny,Mega Medicham,Mega Lucario,Hitmonlee can outspeed and OHKO Heatran with their powerful super effective STAB moves.
Special Walls: Special Walls like Chansey,Blissey,Mega Latias etc. can take any of Heatran's moves and slowly outstall them.
Powerful Z-Move users: Pokemon like Tapu Koko and Thundurus-Therian can outspeed and OHKO Heatran with their powerful Z-Moves,while Heatran can do practically nothing.
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