Fire-types: Burning holes in RU

[DittoCrow]

Fire-types​

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Format stolen from Keiran

Introduction:

Fire-types are some of the strongest Pokemon in the tier. When you see an Entei, Moltres, or Magmortar in the team preview, usually the first thing that comes to mind is setting up Stealth Rock. This is because Fire-types are incredible powerful (or bulky in Flareon's case). Most of them have ways to get around Water-types, such as Entei using Hidden Power Grass to beat Kabutops. In addition, Fire-types provide useful resistances to Grass-, Bug-, and Ice-type attacks. Fire-types are in general among the most threatening Pokemon in the tier, and with Pokemon such as Magmortar on the rise, RU players are going to have to find new ways to deal with them!

Entei:
Type: Fire
Base Stats: 115 HP / 115 Atk / 85 Def / 90 SpA / 75 SpD / 100 Spe

Entei's high Attack, Speed, and good overall bulk make it into a monster. With Flare Blitz, a 120 Base Power Fire-type move, Entei will plow through everything in RU that doesn't resist it. It also has access to priority through the move ExtremeSpeed. This makes Entei one of the most powerful physical attackers in the tier, but it can also effectively run a Calm Mind set due to its decent base 90 Special Attack. However, Entei does not have many other options outside of these ones, and is held back by being forced to have an Adamant nature in order to use Flare Blitz. Slowking is also one of the most used Pokemon in RU, and the defensive set walls Entei. Nevertheless, Entei is still a great Pokemon in the tier and can do major damage once its counters are low in health.

• 
  What sets can Entei use effectively?

Moltres
Type: Fire / Flying
Stats: 90 HP / 100 Atk / 90 Def / 125 SpA / 85 SpD / 90 Spe

Moltres is no doubt one of the most threatening special sweepers in the tier. With a massive base 125 Special Attack and good base 90 Speed, Moltres is sure to do a ton of damage in RU. With a Life Orb equipped, it can even 2HKO Choice Specs Slowking with Hidden Power Grass when Stealth Rock is present. However, having the Fire / Flying typing leaves it 4x weak to Stealth Rock, which severely limits its sweeping capabilities. Moltres does have Roost to mitigate the damage, but a free turn is necessary to use it. Still, Moltres is a great Pokemon especially when paired with a Rapid Spin user, and it should not be underestimated.

• 
  What sets can Moltres use effectively?

Typhlosion
Type: Fire
Stats: 78 HP / 84 Atk / 78 Def / 109 SpA / 85 SpD / 100 Spe

Typhlosion is often though to be inferior to Moltres, but it has its perks. Unlike Moltres, Typhlosion is not 4x weak to Stealth Rock, so it has a few extra times to switch in. It differentiates itself from the other Fire-type Pokemon due to Eruption, an extremely powerful STAB move. Additionally, it has a high base 100 Speed, and its base 109 Special Attack is nothing to scoff at either. Typhlosion becomes even more of a beast under sun, which allows it to take out its Water-type switch-ins with a powerful Solarbeam. Typhlosion should not be considered a weaker Moltres for sure.

• 
  What sets can Typhlosion use effectively?

Magmortar
Type: Fire
Stats: 75 HP / 95 Atk / 67 Def / 125 SpA / 95 SpD / 83 Spe

Magmortar is quickly becoming one of the best stall breakers in the tier. It has access to Thunderbolt, granting it the ability to demolish the popular Slowking + Tangrowth cores. Furthermore, it gets Focus Blast, giving it even better coverage. With base 125 Special Attack, these moves will be doing massive damage to most Pokemon in the RU tier. With the Vital Spirit ability, Magmortar can even come in on Smeargle, Tangrowth, Lilligant, and other sleep-inducers and OHKO them while Magmortar takes a hit due to its decent Special Defense stat. The biggest thing setting it back is its low Speed, but it is still one of the best Fire-types in the tier.

• 
  What sets can Magmortar use effectively?

Emboar
Type: Fire / Fighting
Stats: 110 HP / 123 Atk / 65 Def / 100 SpA / 65 SpD / 65 Spe

Emboar is barely seen in RU, which is surprising considering that it has offensive stats rivaling Entei's. It is also one of the only Fire-types to be neutral to Stealth Rock. Like Entei, Emboar also gets the powerful Flare Blitz. It also gets Wild Charge and a STAB Superpower, two very good coverage moves for Fire-types. Emboar's low Speed is what sets it apart from the other Fire-types, but once it is sent in safely, a STAB Flare Blitz coming off of a base 123 Attack stat will decimate everything switching in.

• 
  What sets can Emboar use effectively?

Flareon
Type: Fire
Stats: 65 HP / 130 Atk / 60 Def / 95 SpA / 110 SpD / 65 Spe

Flareon is one of the best, if not THE best supportive Fire-type in RU. It has great Special Defense, allowing it to wall some of the strongest special attackers in the tier, including the aforementioned Moltres and Magmortar. It also has semi-reliable recovery in Wish, which is can pass to its teammates if needed. Additionally, Flareon has the ability Flash Fire, granting it an immunity to Fire-type moves and boosting its own Fire-type moves in the process. Sadly, Flareon does not have a good enough movepool to abuse its massive Attack stat, but with Lava Plume, Wish, and even Roar, Flareon can make a great defensive teammate.

• 
  What sets can Flareon use effectively?

Camerupt
Type: Fire / Ground
Stats: 70 HP / 100 Atk / 70 Def / 105 SpA / 75 SpD / 40 Spe

Camerupt is a lesser-used Fire-type because it does not pose a great offensive presence and lacks the support movepool to be a reliable wall. However, it does counter some strong special attackers include the aforementioned Moltres and Magmortar, and can set up Stealth Rock. It can even use Rock Polish to mitigate its awful Speed. With moves such as Fire Blast, Earth Power, Earthquake, and Stone Edge, Camerupt can deal a good chunk of damage due to its base 100 Attack and 105 Special Attack. Its defenses aren't too shabby, especially with Solid Rock reducing the damage dealt by super effective moves. I haven't really seen many Camerupt as of yet, but maybe there's a good set out there.

• 
  What sets can Camerupt use effectively?

Heatmor
Type: Fire
Stats: 85 HP / 97 Atk / 66 Def / 105 SpA / 66 SpD / 65 Spe

Last, but certainly not least, is Heatmor, the best Fire-type Pokemon in the game. It has a decent HP stat, good Attack, and great Special Attack along with Hone Claws to boost its Attack and accuracy. The only bad thing about Heatmor is its Speed, which is alleviated due to Sucker Punch's priority. Heatmor can use other great moves such as Fire Blast and Focus Blast, as well as using both with Body Slam to form a strong mixed set. If that's not enough, Heatmor gets Flash Fire, so its STAB moves will become even more powerful upon switching into Fire-type moves. Heatmor should not be underestimated.

heatmor destroys opposing teams and wins matches and gets ladies

• 
  What sets can Heatmor use effectively?

Those are the Fire-types that I feel are most prominent in RU. So, what do you guys think? How important are hazards when dealing with Fire-types, and what are some good counters to Fire-types? Discuss!

Honorable mentions: Rapidash, Charizard, Torkoal, Combusken
Feel free to discuss these if you think they're good!

 

[Texas Cloverleaf]

EMBOAR

So me and SilentVerse have been using the following set recently.

Emboar @ Choice Scarf
Jolly, 252 Atk, 252 Spe
Flare Blitz
Superpower
Wild Charge
Head Smash

Basically this thing hits like a truck. So first off on the team we have be really needed a fast mon that could come in on some Ghosts, outspeed most of the tier and wasn't crippled by Wow, also beating Darks. Well to beat Darks we needed a fighting type but they all lose to Ghosts. Enter Emboar.

With a Scarf he hits something like 375 speed, or just enough to beat out Sceptile, the perfect amount since we didnt need him to be beating Scarfers, just sweepers. With Flare Blitz he has a stupidly strong base 120 STAB move off his base 120 attack with the best offensive typing in the tier, backed up by the second best attack typing in the tier with Superpower, which rips through rocks/darks and stuff. Obviously his stabs are walled by Slowking but then Wild Charge comes in which will always 2HKO it after Rocks and you've got a godsend. Problem is there are times you have a random Crustle or you really cant predict. Boom, Head Smash into oblivion. This guy is a freaking Mack Truck.

I'm actually scared that people have been using the Band verison.

EDIT: Apparently Molk thought I meant Band was bad :p I'm scared of how devastating Band will be, to clarify

 

[Cherub Agent]

I think that Charizard could be put on there, as it vastly outclasses stuff like Flareon and Heatmor...

EDIT: I was waiting for this...

Charizard gets Solar Power with ROOST

Charizard @ Expert Belt/Leftovers/(Life Orb is insane, but the HP loss may be too much even for Roost)
Timid - Solar Power
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Fire Blast
- SolarBeam
- Roost
- Sunny Day / Focus Blast / Air Slash

Charizard's problem has always been survivability. Obviously he keeps the SR weakness, but a good Rapid Spinner can make up for that, and Roost obviously helps with the SR weakness AND SP recoil. Charizard can set up his own Sun, as resistances don't really count when using Fire Blast under STAB, Sun and SP. Rock- and Water-types are demolished by SolarBeam anyway. So basically Charizard's psycho killer set can stick around for much longer now, and can basically only be revenge killed.


Oh yeah, and there's this:

Moltres @ Life Orb
Pressure - Timid
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Fire Blast
- Hurricane / Air Slash
- HP Grass
- Roost

I like my flying flames... Moltres did get Hurricane, which, while still quite quite inaccurate, is probably a better option than Air Slash, as it's much stronger and also has a lovely 30% additional effect (confusion). Basically Hurricane is quite a bit stronger than a super effective HP Grass (180 BP vs. 140) so Moltres can dismantle Slowking that switch in on either Hurricane or HP Grass, and finish Slowking off with the move that it didn't come in on (two HP Grasses aren't enough for the KO and you don't want to chance two Hurricanes). Moltres can also afford to miss with its good bulk and Roost.

 

[SuperCharizardMaster]

I think that Charizard could be put on there, as it vastly outclasses stuff like Flareon and Heatmor...

Agreed.

 

[Texas Cloverleaf]

If you think Charizard is a good Fire type in RU then talk about it! What makes it so good? What sets do you run? Why do you run them? This is a discussion thread, so lets see!

Also one word posts will not be tolerated :)

 

[Turnstoash]

Power herb solarbeam typhlosion is my favorite set. Eruption lures in water and, to a lesser extent, rock types like nobody's business. Not many pokemon can take an eruption followed by a solarbeam, and chances are pretty good that was your opponents only good switch into eruption. The one thing that really stands in the way of this set are opposing fire types. focus blast just really doesn't cut it. hopefully it will get earth power in b2/w2

 

[lars]

Also one word posts will not be tolerated :)

Why?

jk

All joking aside, yeah one word posts don't contribute anything to a discussion.

Back in Sableye meta, Typhlosion was my go-to fire-type. Lure the sableye with (my typical team members at the time) Primeape, Scolipede, or Honchkrow, switch Typhlosion into the WoW, and destroy the switch in with a Specs Eruption.

I've dabbled with Typhlosion every once in a while since, running a scarf set for a while, and then something of my own creation that isn't as bad as some might assume.

Typhlosion @ Leftovers
Blaze
Jolly EVs 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe

Substitute
Focus Punch
Wild Charge
Flare Blitz

It worked decently, but I'll admit I was not overly impressed with it. Using a LO with an Adamant nature might yield more success (and a 2HKO on Slowking with Wild Charge) but Typhlosion will just die really fast due to massive recoil and SR damage.

Still an interesting lure if you really don't like Munchlax

Slowking is pretty much a guaranteed switch in on a sub set, considering
Sub + Fire Blast + Focus Blast + HP [rock] is the only set you would (usually) ever see with a Sub and Slowking hard-core walls that.

Getting the 2hko with Wild Charge might be worth retesting...

However, if I'm going for a Physical Fire-type, I usually run

Entei @ Leftovers
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Will-O-Wisp
- Stone Edge
- Flare Blitz
- ExtremeSpeed

that's all pretty self explanitory, I'm almost completely against LO on anything weak to all forms of entry hazards, and I think CB is too easy to play around.

WoW is a personal preference to cripple Sandslash, most Spiritomb, Aggron, and Rhydon. Most really expect you to switch out against Aggron.

I don't always run a fire type, but when I do, its almost always these two.

 

[Age of Kings]

I have no idea about the RU metagame, but I just noticed that Moltres gets Hurricane in BW2. Despite its horrible accuracy and ideal weather being something that is unfavorable to Moltres, I think it's a great upgrade in power in its movepool. Another 120 BP STAB is nothing to scoff at, especially since it can pose a threat to things that previously walled it and gives it better variation in its HP options (HP Ground should suffice with Hurricane, since the latter does more than HP Electric/Grass to Water types that don't resist it). Again, I know nothing of the metagame but I couldn't think of a better place to discuss this. c:

 

[DFrog]

The choice band entei is a huge threat in the metagame. Checking almost every grass type in the tier and leaving holes in various walls in the tier. From personal experience the CB Entei clean 2HKO a slowking (i imagine it was a offensive set) which is a great asset to the legendary

 

[PK Gaming]

Ooh, I definitely want to back up Charizard in RU, it's awesome. I've always found it to be underrated in RU, since it's ability to take of care of common fire checks like Slowking and Lanturn with Solarbeam was pretty. It got a bad rap for being frail / SR weak, but Solar Power sets should have been used with leftovers in order to minimize the passive damage it received at the end of every turn. Charizard was slightly less effective than Moltres, but he always got the job done.

Typhlosion on the other hand has always been a tad overrated. I don't think i've ever effectively used scarf against a decent player because 9 times out of 10 they used a Typhlosion counter that could deal with scarf eruption (slowking, lanturn, etc) and that it was difficult to keep SR off the field AND simultaneously deal with his counters. That was his problem in DPP UU too. On the other hand, i've always enjoyed his Sunny Day set (despite being strictly weaker than Charizard, he had his perks like longer staying power). It's not the greatest of sets, but it's a strong offensive Pokemon that can break through stall teams lategame if the opponent isn't running munchlax.

I really can't wait until he gets flash fire though, I imagine that it will boost his performance in RU by a fairly high amount. The ability to switch into choiced fire moves AND get a power boost from WoW has me salivating. Hurry up and release those DW abilities GF!

 

[Molk]

Im going to have to agree with PKgaming on typhlosion here, when i came back to play RU again, i had no damn clue why typhlosion usage was so high. During my entire RU career i havent ever had a problem with it, and moltres/magmortar is overall WAY more threatening. Im not saying that its bad, per se, it still has its perks such as eruption, high speed, and blaze, but i dont really see what the big deal is and how it jumped from like #30 to #11 lol.

Magmortar is a beast of a pokemon, seriously, why is it currently NU ?_? it has amazing coverage, acceptable special bulk to switch into grass types and even weak scalds more easily, and most importantly, it can take on Slowking and munchlax, two mons that give other fire types a lot of trouble. Then theres vital spirit, which always saves your ass against smeargle that want to piss you off with hazards, as well as things like tangrowth. Magmortar really deserves more use and should be a top tier mon imo.