BSS Defensive Utility Arcanine [QC 1/1] [GP 1/1]

[Photon]

This thing has fairly high usage but there is a surprising lack of teams at the top using it. I suppose its something getting spammed more at middle ladder than anything. Nonetheless, its one of those things that has been establishing itself as an at least decent choice, so I'll at least start by covering the defensive set. This is another set I gave a unique name to simply because its one of those more versatile mons that can cover a lot of different things comfortably.

The choice of slashes is something that is certainly up for discussion. There are clear cut winners for the top 4 moves according to usage, but the sparse team reports are a bit all over the place on what they use. I opted to put Roar and Bulldoze as main slashes mainly because of this report, while moving Snarl down as an other option. Despite them all being rather close in usage, I felt I had to use some metric of prioritization so as to not crowd either the main slashes or the "Other Options."

I also left the door open for Arcanine to be more support focused with the slashes. For example, the Arcanine listed in the report above was mono-Bulldoze with its attacking moves. That being said, Extreme Speed is the highest usage move for Arcanine so its still the move heavily prioritized in the slashes.

[SET]
name: Defensive Utility
move 1: Flare Blitz
move 2: Morning Sun
move 3: Extreme Speed / Will-O-Wisp
move 4: Extreme Speed / Roar / Bulldoze
item: Heavy-Duty Boots / Rocky Helmet / Leftovers
ability: Intimidate
nature: Impish / Adamant
evs: 236 HP / 212 Def / 60 Spe
tera type: Normal / Fairy

[SET COMMENTS]

* A unique combination of Intimidate, Extreme Speed and multiple support tools make Arcanine a versatile and unpredictable defensive option.

* **Extreme Speed**: Even on a defensive set, Extreme Speed's strong base power and priority combined with Arcanine's naturally high Attack make it a potent cleaning tool.

* **Roar**: Roar lets Arcanine phaze out troublesome set-up foes that are hard for teammates to switch into, such as Wo-Chien and Garganacl.

* **Bulldoze**: Bulldoze's speed control can be used to set up your own offense for a countersweep.

* **EV Spread**: After Intimidate, the given EV spread lets Arcanine avoid a 2HKO from Choice Band Chien-Pao's Crunch and Baxcalibur's Earthquake. The HP investment minimizes Stealth Rock damage when not running Heavy-Duty Boots, and the Speed investment outspeeds Adamant Breloom.

Other Options
========

* **Snarl**: This move lets Arcanine pester special attackers that switch into it, potentially letting it stay in longer or ease a switch to a teammate.

Items
========

* **Heavy-Duty Boots**: As a defensive switch-in with a Stealth Rock weakness, Arcanine heavily favors Heavy-Duty Boots to remove said weakness.

* **Rocky Helmet**: Against targets like Chien-Pao, Arcanine can rack up passive chip damage.

* **Leftovers**: Passive recovery is a valuable asset to have on a defensive Pokemon, but since Arcanine is an Intimidate user that switches a lot, Leftovers doesn't always have enough turns to produce good value.

Tera Types
========

* **Tera Dependency - Medium**: Terastallization can do a lot to further improve Arcanine's unique set of attributes, but it's not necessarily something that Arcanine needs to function.

* **Normal**: Tera Normal gives Arcanine even more cleaning power by boosting Extreme Speed. It's also a nice pinch option for blocking Ghost-type moves, as Flutter Mane and Mimikyu are often forced to use them due to Arcanine's Fairy resistance.

* **Fairy**: Tera Fairy provides defensive insurance against some of the hardest hitting Choice Band users, such as Tera Dark Chien-Pao and Outrage Dragonite.

[CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/photon.516307/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/derpysux.528485/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/deezcastforms.423085/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/sabelette.583793/

 

[Omastar68]

Looks good. Is the new move Raging Fury ok? It's fire outrage. So you get locked and later confused, but no recoil. I mean way back when there were megas, mence never went thrash over double edge, so I doubt it. I mostly wonder because, if you're not running another direct attack, being locked in can be less bad than recoil cause it's bulky. Maybe.

 

[DerpySuX]

Pretty simple mon, covered your bases well. I’m personally fine with the name “Guard Dog” but seeing as it is the name of an ability in game now you might be asked to change it. Looks good tho, QC APPROVED

 

[Photon]

Pretty simple mon, covered your bases well. I’m personally fine with the name “Guard Dog” but seeing as it is the name of an ability in game now you might be asked to change it. Looks good tho, QC APPROVED

Yeah, I should probably just go back to calling it "Defensive Utility." Looking at it again, this isn't that weird of a set, heh.

 

[DerpySuX]

GP Team

 

[Deezcastforms]

This is an amcheck

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This thing has fairly high usage but there is a surprising lack of teams at the top using it. I suppose its something getting spammed more at middle ladder than anything. Nonetheless, its one of those things that has been establishing itself as an at least decent choice, so I'll at least start by covering the defensive set. This is another set I gave a unique name to simply because its one of those more versatile mons that can cover a lot of different things comfortably.

The choice of slashes is something that is certainly up for discussion. There are clear cut winners for the top 4 moves according to usage, but the sparse team reports are a bit all over the place on what they use. I opted to put Roar and Bulldoze as main slashes mainly because of this report, while moving Snarl down as an other option. Despite them all being rather close in usage, I felt I had to use some metric of prioritization so as to not crowd either the main slashes or the "Other Options."

I also left the door open for Arcanine to be more support focused with the slashes. For example, the Arcanine listed in the report above was mono-Bulldoze with its attacking moves. That being said, Extreme Speed is the highest usage move for Arcanine so its still the move heavily prioritized in the slashes.

[SET]
name: Defensive Utility
move 1: Flare Blitz
move 2: Morning Sun
move 3: Extreme Speed / Will-O-Wisp
move 4: Extreme Speed / Roar / Bulldoze
item: Heavy-Duty Boots / Rocky Helmet / Leftovers
ability: Intimidate
nature: Impish / Adamant
evs: 236 HP / 212 Def / 60 Spe
tera type: Normal / Fairy

[SET COMMENTS]

* A unique combination of Intimidate, Extreme Speed, (AC) and multiple support options tools make Arcanine a versatile and unpredictable defensive option. Subjective, removing repetition of "option"

* **Extreme Speed**: Even on a defensive set, Extreme Speed's strong base power and priority combined with Arcanine's naturally high Attack make it a potent cleaning tool.

* **Roar**: Roar lets you phaze out troublesome set-(AH)up foes that are hard for teammates to switch into, such as Wo-Chien and Garganacl. When used as an adjective, setup should be either hyphenated or split into two words based on context.

* **Bulldoze**: Bulldoze's Speed control can be used to set up your own offense for a countersweep.

* **EV Spread**: After an Intimidate, the given EV spread lets Arcanine avoid the 2HKO from Choice Band Chien-Pao's Crunch and Baxcalibur's Earthquake. The HP investment is optimized to minimizes Stealth Rock damage when not running Heavy-Duty Boots, and the Speed investment outspeeds Adamant Breloom. Subjective, removed unnecessary wording.

Other Options
========

* **Snarl**: This move lets Arcanine pester special attackers that switch into it, potentially letting it stay in longer or set up ease a switch to a teammate. Subjective, but but I feel particularly strongly about this one. Set up already has an established definition within Smogon, so using it in a different but still technically correct way can be rather confusing.

Items
========

* **Heavy-Duty Boots**: As a defensive switch-in with a Stealth Rock weakness, Arcanine heavily favors Heavy-Duty Boots to remove said weakness.

* **Rocky Helmet**: Against targets like Chien-Pao, Arcanine can essentially force it to use contact moves and rack up passive chip damage.

* **Leftovers**: Passive recovery is a valuable asset to have on a defensive teammate Pokemon, but the nature of being an Intimidate user that switches a lot means Leftovers doesn't always have enough turns to produce good value. Subjective, I've always considered teammate to be used in reference to what the focus Pokemon does for other members of the team. Something like, "Arcanine's Intimidate helps protect its teammates from physical attackers.

Tera Types
========

* **Tera Dependency - Medium**: Terastallization can do a lot to further improve Arcanine's unique set of attributes, but it's not necessarily something that Arcanine needs to function.

* **Normal**: Tera Normal gives Arcanine even more cleaning power by boosting Extreme Speed. It's also a nice pinch option for blocking Ghost-type moves, as Flutter Mane and Mimikyu are often forced to use them because of Arcanine's natural Fairy-type resistance.

* **Fairy**: Tera Fairy provides defensive insurance against some of the game's hardest hitting Choice Band users, such as Tera Dark Chien-Pao and Outrage Dragonite.

Sabelette

 

[Sabelette]

Adding mine over top of it, GP 1/1 GP Team done

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[SET]
name: Defensive Utility
move 1: Flare Blitz
move 2: Morning Sun
move 3: Extreme Speed / Will-O-Wisp
move 4: Extreme Speed / Roar / Bulldoze
item: Heavy-Duty Boots / Rocky Helmet / Leftovers
ability: Intimidate
nature: Impish / Adamant
evs: 236 HP / 212 Def / 60 Spe
tera type: Normal / Fairy

[SET COMMENTS]

* A unique combination of Intimidate, Extreme Speed, (AC) and multiple support options tools (optional, writer's choice) make Arcanine a versatile and unpredictable defensive option. Subjective, removing repetition of "option"

* **Extreme Speed**: Even on a defensive set, Extreme Speed's strong base power and priority combined with Arcanine's naturally high Attack make it a potent cleaning tool.

* **Roar**: Roar lets you Arcanine phaze out troublesome set-(AH)up foes that are hard for teammates to switch into, such as Wo-Chien and Garganacl. When used as an adjective, setup should be either hyphenated or split into two words based on context.

* **Bulldoze**: Bulldoze's Speed speed control ("speed control" is the one exception to capitalizing "Speed") can be used to set up your own offense for a countersweep.

* **EV Spread**: After an Intimidate, the given EV spread lets Arcanine avoid the a 2HKO from Choice Band Chien-Pao's Crunch and Baxcalibur's Earthquake. The HP investment is optimized to minimizes (agree w/ this change) Stealth Rock damage when not running Heavy-Duty Boots, and the Speed investment outspeeds Adamant Breloom. Subjective, removed unnecessary wording.

Other Options
========

* **Snarl**: This move lets Arcanine pester special attackers that switch into it, potentially letting it stay in longer or set up ease a switch to a teammate. Subjective, but but I feel particularly strongly about this one. Set up already has an established definition within Smogon, so using it in a different but still technically correct way can be rather confusing. (agree, mixing terms causes confusion)

Items
========

* **Heavy-Duty Boots**: As a defensive switch-in with a Stealth Rock weakness, Arcanine heavily favors Heavy-Duty Boots to remove said weakness.

* **Rocky Helmet**: Against targets like Chien-Pao, Arcanine can essentially force it to use contact moves and (without something like Taunt idt "force" is the right word, it's just that they use contact moves) rack up passive chip damage.

* **Leftovers**: Passive recovery is a valuable asset to have on a defensive teammate Pokemon, but the nature of being since Arcanine is an Intimidate user that switches a lot, (AC) means Leftovers doesn't always have enough turns to produce good value. Subjective, I've always considered teammate to be used in reference to what the focus Pokemon does for other members of the team. Something like, "Arcanine's Intimidate helps protect its teammates from physical attackers. (agree w/ this one)

Tera Types
========

* **Tera Dependency - Medium**: Terastallization can do a lot to further improve Arcanine's unique set of attributes, but it's not necessarily something that Arcanine needs to function.

* **Normal**: Tera Normal gives Arcanine even more cleaning power by boosting Extreme Speed. It's also a nice pinch option for blocking Ghost-type moves, as Flutter Mane and Mimikyu are often forced to use them because of Arcanine's natural Fairy-type resistance due to Arcanine's Fairy resistance.

* **Fairy**: Tera Fairy provides defensive insurance against some of the game's hardest hitting Choice Band users, such as Tera Dark Chien-Pao and Outrage Dragonite.

 

[Photon]

Adding mine over top of it, GP 1/1 GP Team done

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[SET]
name: Defensive Utility
move 1: Flare Blitz
move 2: Morning Sun
move 3: Extreme Speed / Will-O-Wisp
move 4: Extreme Speed / Roar / Bulldoze
item: Heavy-Duty Boots / Rocky Helmet / Leftovers
ability: Intimidate
nature: Impish / Adamant
evs: 236 HP / 212 Def / 60 Spe
tera type: Normal / Fairy

[SET COMMENTS]

* A unique combination of Intimidate, Extreme Speed, (AC) and multiple support options tools (optional, writer's choice) make Arcanine a versatile and unpredictable defensive option. Subjective, removing repetition of "option"

* **Extreme Speed**: Even on a defensive set, Extreme Speed's strong base power and priority combined with Arcanine's naturally high Attack make it a potent cleaning tool.

* **Roar**: Roar lets you Arcanine phaze out troublesome set-(AH)up foes that are hard for teammates to switch into, such as Wo-Chien and Garganacl. When used as an adjective, setup should be either hyphenated or split into two words based on context.

* **Bulldoze**: Bulldoze's Speed speed control ("speed control" is the one exception to capitalizing "Speed") can be used to set up your own offense for a countersweep.

* **EV Spread**: After an Intimidate, the given EV spread lets Arcanine avoid the a 2HKO from Choice Band Chien-Pao's Crunch and Baxcalibur's Earthquake. The HP investment is optimized to minimizes (agree w/ this change) Stealth Rock damage when not running Heavy-Duty Boots, and the Speed investment outspeeds Adamant Breloom. Subjective, removed unnecessary wording.

Other Options
========

* **Snarl**: This move lets Arcanine pester special attackers that switch into it, potentially letting it stay in longer or set up ease a switch to a teammate. Subjective, but but I feel particularly strongly about this one. Set up already has an established definition within Smogon, so using it in a different but still technically correct way can be rather confusing. (agree, mixing terms causes confusion)

Items
========

* **Heavy-Duty Boots**: As a defensive switch-in with a Stealth Rock weakness, Arcanine heavily favors Heavy-Duty Boots to remove said weakness.

* **Rocky Helmet**: Against targets like Chien-Pao, Arcanine can essentially force it to use contact moves and (without something like Taunt idt "force" is the right word, it's just that they use contact moves) rack up passive chip damage.

* **Leftovers**: Passive recovery is a valuable asset to have on a defensive teammate Pokemon, but the nature of being since Arcanine is an Intimidate user that switches a lot, (AC) means Leftovers doesn't always have enough turns to produce good value. Subjective, I've always considered teammate to be used in reference to what the focus Pokemon does for other members of the team. Something like, "Arcanine's Intimidate helps protect its teammates from physical attackers. (agree w/ this one)

Tera Types
========

* **Tera Dependency - Medium**: Terastallization can do a lot to further improve Arcanine's unique set of attributes, but it's not necessarily something that Arcanine needs to function.

* **Normal**: Tera Normal gives Arcanine even more cleaning power by boosting Extreme Speed. It's also a nice pinch option for blocking Ghost-type moves, as Flutter Mane and Mimikyu are often forced to use them because of Arcanine's natural Fairy-type resistance due to Arcanine's Fairy resistance.

* **Fairy**: Tera Fairy provides defensive insurance against some of the game's hardest hitting Choice Band users, such as Tera Dark Chien-Pao and Outrage Dragonite.

Implemented. Credits have been added as well. Thank you!

 

[DerpySuX]

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