Pokémon Iron Treads

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Iron Treads

Base Stats: 90/112/120/72/70/106 (570 BST)
Abilities: Quark Drive ( If Electric Terrain is active, or this Pokemon is holding Booster Energy, this Pokemon's highest stat is boosted by 50%. )

Notable Moves:
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin
- Knock Off
- Iron Head
- Heavy Slam
- Ice Spinner
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge
- Volt Switch
- Tera Blast
Horn Attack @ Lv. 1
Defense Curl @ Lv. 1
Rollout @ Lv. 1
Electric Terrain @ Lv. 1
Bulldoze @ Lv. 7
Rapid Spin @ Lv. 21
Iron Head @ Lv. 28
Stomping Tantrum @ Lv. 35
Knock Off @ Lv. 42
Earthquake @ Lv. 49
Heavy Slam @ Lv. 56
Wild Charge @ Lv. 63
Endeavor @ Lv. 70
Megahorn @ Lv. 77
Giga Impact @ Lv. 84
Steel Roller @ Lv. 91
TM Moves:
Body Slam, Take Down, Hyper Beam, Thunder, Earthquake, Rest, Rock Slide, Substitute, Protect, Scary Face, Mud-Slap, Sandstorm, Facade, Rock Tomb, Iron Defense, Mud Shot, Earth Power, Giga Impact, Thunder Fang, Ice Fang, Zen Headbutt, Flash Cannon, Iron Head, Stone Edge, Stealth Rock, Heavy Slam, Electro Ball, Volt Switch, Bulldoze, Wild Charge, Electric Terrain, Smart Strike, Stomping Tantrum, Body Press, Steel Beam, Tera Blast, Ice Spinner

Pros:
- Iron Tread's typing, movepool, and statline is generally reminiscent of Excadrill, a historically solid pokemon in OU.
- Has Rapid Spin alongside an offensive movepool to efficiently utilize it.
- Especially notable is its access to the now-rare Knock Off, meaning it can threaten spinblockers and make progress
- Ice coverage is really efficient and a great offensive Tera type.
- Can pivot, albeit poorly.
Cons:
- Lacks a good boosting move to augment its mediocre Attack stat. In my experience it often misses expected 2HKOes.
- No recovery.
- Special bulk leaves a lot to be desired, especially in a metagame with Flutter Mane.
- 106 Speed is hilariously mediocre in the current meta, but this should be a short-term problem.

Terastallize Potential:
- Ice as a Tera type is probably the best non-STAB offensive choice, given it beats down the Flying- and Ground-types that check it.
- Dark if you really want to spam knock

Potential Sets:
Offensive Utility (Iron Treads) @ Assault Vest / Leftovers
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Ice / Dark
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Ice Spinner / Iron Head
- Rapid Spin / Stealth Rock

Don't really see the need to add more sets than the basic offensive utility one, given all of the worthwhile stuff Iron Treads can do is in this set. Maybe some sort of Booster Energy set could get something done, but I'm unsure of how far +1 Attack or Speed could really carry the mon. Regardless, moves are mostly self-explanatory, just want to say that you shouldn't combo Stealth Rock and Rapid Spin, you'll go a lot further with a 3rd attack.

Overall I think this stick in OU throughout the gen, pretty hard to argue against a redux Excadrill not being consistent. How has it been preforming for you guys? It's been solid but the damage output has disappointed me, so I'd like to hear others' experiences.
 

Egor

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I've been having positive experience with Tera Water Iron Treads so far. Even though it sacrifices Terastal for a potentially better abuser, the ability to turn its weaknesses upside down has come in clutch several times, letting Iron Treads trade versus the likes of Palafin, Great Tusk and Iron Valiant favorably.

And while having a 3rd attack over Stealth Rock or Rapid Spin surely makes Iron Treads more self-sufficient, these two moves together grant amazing role compression which would be loved by, for example, hugely offensive teams, where Iron Treads also provides a viable way to scare out Flutter Mane.
 
This thing honestly feels like the closest thing to a teambuilding staple for me so far.
A good Steel type and Ground type still feel near mandatory for most teams, and this guy is arguably the best for both positions.

I've been running a more defensive variant with 248 HP / 52 Atk / 208 Spe Jolly to speedcreep Chiyu who is the fastest thing it could reasonably beat, and 52 Atk gives it just enough to secure the 2HKO on Dragapult, and it is just a phenomal glue to basically any team.

Seconding that Tera Water is amazing for Palafin specifically, though I've also been having some success with Dark to function as a Dark/Ghost resist.
 
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I'll start off by saying that this may be a terrible idea, but it's something I think actually could hold a niche for now. With Terrain not having any solid setters via ability (Pincurchin can but its... you know) vs sun for protosynthisis, I had an idea. At least until Rillaboom is reintroduced (which is confirmed it will come back in early 2023), Iron Treads is an interesting case for a manual electric terrain setter.

The weakness of any manual terrain is typically the mons that want to set up for themselves can't take a hit too well. But with a slew of mons that know Quark drive existing, as well as Iron Treads having access to great typing, volt switch, and great supporting moves, the strategy can hold weight.

A huge weakness quark drive has over protosynthisis is that it doesn't have a good terrain setter. Furthermore, booster energy can only be used by 1 mon. I think the idea is extremely team dependent, however a bulky support set that runs Electric terrain could be decent.
 
This thing honestly feels like the closest thing to a teambuilding staple for me so far.
A good Steel type and Ground type still feel near mandatory for most teams, and this guy is arguably the best for both positions.

I've been running a more defensive variant with 248 HP / 52 Atk / 208 Spe Jolly to speedcreep Chiyu who is the fastest thing it could reasonably beat, and 52 Atk gives it just enough to secure the 2HKO on Dragapult, and it is just a phenomal glue to basically any team.

Seconding that Tera Water is amazing for Palafin specifically, though I've also been having some success with Dark to function as a Dark/Ghost resist.
I agree. While maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but it feels almost like Lando-T right now. It's not broken or even particularly strong, it just offers so much role compression and opens up so much in teambuilding. It never performs amazing in a game, but there's also never a game where it doesn't really do anything.
 
I've found that I prefer Chople Berry over Leftovers on the usual offensive utility set. I don't tend to get much healing from Leftovers, and Chople Berry takes advantage of multiple walls' only decent offence against Iron Treads being Body Press (e.g. Corviknight, Orthworm, lets you stay in a little longer against Garganacl). Iron Treads now lives these hits it has no right living:

252 SpA Gholdengo Focus Blast vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Chople Berry Iron Treads: 177-209 (55.1 - 65.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (chances are you OHKO Scarf Gholdengo back)
252 Atk Iron Valiant Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Chople Berry Iron Treads: 169-199 (52.6 - 61.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Great Tusk Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Chople Berry Iron Treads: 186-219 (57.9 - 68.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Great Tusk Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Chople Berry Iron Treads: 279-328 (86.9 - 102.1%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO
+2 4 Def Garganacl Body Press vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Chople Berry Iron Treads: 124-146 (38.6 - 45.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO (OK, you could have survived that with no Chople Berry at full)
 
It is kind of overshadowed by Great Tusk right now, but it is a really solid pokemon. It boasts unique typing, being able to outspeed key threats such as Garchomp and has Rapin Spin+SR. It has definitely exceeded my expectations
 

McGrrr

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AV has been most consistent for me.

Iron Treads @ Assault Vest
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe (offensive)
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpD / 252 Spe (mixed bulk)
EVs: 80 HP / 176 SpD / 252 Spe (special bulk)
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Volt Switch / Ice Spinner / Iron Head
- Rapid Spin

Treads has a unique and great speed tier, so it should be maximised. With that established, I want to emphasise the relative merits of the 3 EV spreads:

1) Tera Ground EQ can often clean up with the offensive spread at +1 speed. Note that Tera Ground EQ is always a 2HKO vs 0/0 Leftovers Tusk if Tusk is at -1 defence for the second hit (371 - 158 + 23 - 236 = exact kill with min rolls)

2) 248 HP (not 252) is very important on the mixed bulk spread as all residual damage rounds down. Even with Leftovers, HP should not be maxed:

HPSalt Cure 1/4thRocky Helmet 1/6thSpikes 1/8thBurn 1/16thStealth Rock 1/32nd
384-96-64-48-24-12
383-95-63-47-23-11

3) The special bulk spread always survives Shadow Ball into Focus Blast from Timid Gholdengo. Note that uninvested Tera Ground EQ still always OHKOs 0/4 Gholdengo and 248/8 Clodsire in a pinch (and Flutter in Ubers)
 
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Is there really any reasons to run this over Great Tusk? Since their roles are so similar it seems like a bad idea to run both, so what’s the main appeal of Iron Treads?
 

McGrrr

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Is there really any reasons to run this over Great Tusk? Since their roles are so similar it seems like a bad idea to run both, so what’s the main appeal of Iron Treads?
Typing, speed tier, better fit on Rain. Also, I actually do run both on an Ubers team to (among other reasons) avoid stacking too many Fairy weaknesses with Ting-Lu.
 
Is there really any reasons to run this over Great Tusk? Since their roles are so similar it seems like a bad idea to run both, so what’s the main appeal of Iron Treads?
Speed is the short answer. Tusk is a powerhouse, but Treads outspeeds common set up mons and has better coverage. Steel/ground is also an amazing typing for a lead mon because it has Immunity to both poison and electric, as well poison status and nuzzles/thunderwaves. Glimmora has a hard time doing what it wants to do, it outspeeds chomp and can Ice Spinner it and it punishes Volt Switchers and most pivot leads with Knock off/Rapid Spin.

And looking into the future, knowing that the Gen 5 genies will be back in the meta within a few months, this mon is way more punishing to landoris and thunderous.

It should also be known that it can pivot with volt switch just to add extra annoyance
 

McGrrr

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Do you need a Stealth Rock breaker/Tusk lure?

Iron Treads @ Life Orb
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 44 Atk / 252 SpA / 212 Spe
Rash Nature
- Earthquake
- Steel Beam
- Stealth Rock
- Endeavor

Enough speed to hit 301 and Treads denies Rapid Spin if it dies to Life Orb/Steel Beam recoil. Endeavor has funny synergy with all of that recoil as well as Treads' natural ability to survive most hits.

I see that you're not convinced, so consider these example damage calcs:

252+ SpA Life Orb Iron Treads Steel Beam vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Great Tusk: 364-430 (98.1 - 115.9%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO
252+ SpA Life Orb Iron Treads Steel Beam vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Meowscarada: 296-348 (101 - 118.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ SpA Life Orb Iron Treads Steel Beam vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Dragapult: 278-329 (87.6 - 103.7%) -- 25% chance to OHKO

252+ SpA Life Orb Iron Treads Steel Beam vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Garganacl: 343-406 (84.9 - 100.4%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
252+ SpA Life Orb Iron Treads Steel Beam vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Tera Fairy Skeledirge: 385-455 (93.4 - 110.4%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO
252+ SpA Life Orb Iron Treads Steel Beam vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Grimmsnarl: 385-455 (97.7 - 115.4%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO
252+ SpA Life Orb Iron Treads Steel Beam vs. +1 252 HP / 0 SpD Hatterene: 289-343 (90.8 - 107.8%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO

All of this without even Tera Steel, and EQ still does what it needs to do:

44 Atk Life Orb Iron Treads Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 335-398 (106.3 - 126.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
44 Atk Life Orb Iron Treads Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Clodsire: 484-569 (104.3 - 122.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
 
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