Pokémon Iron Valiant

[romanji]

Base Stats: 74 HP / 130 Atk / 90 Def / 120 SAtk / 60 SDef / 116 Spe (590 total)
Ability: Quark Drive

Notable Moves
Agility
Aura Sphere
Calm Mind
Close Combat
Destiny Bond
Energy Ball
Fire Punch
Focus Blast
Ice Punch
Knock Off
Moonblast
Psychic
Psyshock
Shadow Ball
Shadow Sneak
Spirit Break
Tera Blast
Thunderbolt
Thunder Punch
Zen Headbutt

New Ability:
Quark Drive - If Electric Terrain is active or Booster Energy held, the highest stat is 1.5x.

Pros
- Amazing offensive movepool to let it mix and match coverage, letting it go physical, special, or mixed.
- Booster Energy lets it outspeed every Choice Scarf user
- Quad Dark resistance to let it check strong Dark-types like Chien-Pao and Kingambit

Cons
- Below average bulk gives it few opportunites to set up without Screens
- Issues picking the right coverage move for every Pokemon it wants to check

Terastalizing Potential

Turning into a Fairy type rids Iron Valiant of some of its big weaknesses to Flying, Psychic, and Fairy, while also giving it a slightly stronger STAB than Spirit Break.

This gives it a better shot against Corviknight, while crucially giving it a Steel Resistance against Scizor's Bullet Punch.

Potential Moveset
Iron Valiant @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Fairy / Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Tera Blast / Spirit Break
- Knock Off / Psycho Cut / Fire Punch

Booster Energy for the Speed Boost, and Swords Dance and Close Combat are obvious, Tera Blast or Spirit Break are for Fairy STAB, and you have your many coverage options at your disposal. Iron Valiant is one of the Pokemon with access to Knock Off, which can also hit Psychic-types, Psycho Cut OHKOes Clodsire at +2, and Fire Punch for Corviknight and Scizor.

Hopefully in the next few days after Flutter Mane is banned, we can really see Iron Valiant's true Potential!

 

[DiscoDucky]

Iron Valiant @ Life Orb
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Psychic / Elec / Grass
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Close Combat
- Moonblast
- Thunderbolt / Energy Ball
- Psyshock

As hyper offensive this metagame is, we've already seen some variants of Stall running around in OU that all seem to have an insufficient answer to Mixed IroVal. It most notably baits in typically PhysDef Pokemon like Toxapex, but every one of its moves addresses a common element of stall (Blissey, Clodsire, Quagsire, Umbreon, Corv, Slowbro, etc.) without becoming DittoBait. Once the metagame settles down, I'm fairly certain that this might shake out to be IroVal's best set given how well it can open doors for other sweepers.

 

[Taliheim]

Imagine gen 4 infernape, except sand doesn't really exist, and it resists rocks, and it doesn't need to run LO on mixed sets, and outspeeds the 110+115 speed tiers, only at the cost of losing U-Turn.

As much as I adore its visual design on a personal level, I just don't see this thing staying in OU. Having so many powerful offensive options can only really be balanced by making each individual set highly committal in teambuilding and/or piloting it, or by being a glass cannon that can struggle to survive even if it never gets directly attacked once, neither of which seem to apply. It's more subtle than "imma steamroll you with raw speed + (sp)atk" but, man.

EDIT: Didn't pay close enough attention to its movepool, its strongest physical fairy STAB being base 75 is definitely pretty wack. Not sure how much it'll change tho

 

[escarlata]

Iron Valiant @ Life Orb
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Psychic / Elec / Grass
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Close Combat
- Moonblast
- Thunderbolt / Energy Ball
- Psyshock

As hyper offensive this metagame is, we've already seen some variants of Stall running around in OU that all seem to have an insufficient answer to Mixed IroVal. It most notably baits in typically PhysDef Pokemon like Toxapex, but every one of its moves addresses a common element of stall (Blissey, Clodsire, Quagsire, Umbreon, Corv, Slowbro, etc.) without becoming DittoBait. Once the metagame settles down, I'm fairly certain that this might shake out to be IroVal's best set given how well it can open doors for other sweepers.

I'm really liking this set currently, primarily because spamming Moonblast just feels really good right now (way better than spamming lul Spirit Break). Thunderbolt definitely feels much better to use than Energy Ball though, because Corv is annoying as ever, and Pex is seeing some gradual increase in usage as well.

In the last slot, I honestly enjoy Knock Off over Psyshock to cover primarily Gholdengo and occasionally things that like to Tera Ghost. Sucks to miss out on Clodsire, but giving Gholdengo a free switch just feels gamelosing sometimes. I've considered running a more mixed EV spread, but tbh spamming max SpA Moonblast just feels so good, and the minimal Atk investment has not yet felt insufficient so far.

 

[Lectrys]

In theory, Choice Band Iron Valiant should be a pretty good set. You've got Knock Off to OHKO offensive Gholdengo (although Scarf ones outspeed and OHKO you, and defensive ones can actually live the hit from full and OHKO you back) and Trick to cripple defensive Poison-types such as Clodsire:

Iron Valiant @ Choice Band
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spirit Break
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Trick

In practice, man has Spirit Break felt pretty weak, even after Tera Fairy.

 

[shadowpea]

Iron Valiant @ Choice Specs
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Moonblast
- Close Combat / Aura Sphere / Focus Blast
- Knock Off / Psyshock
- Trick / one of the above / Thunderbolt

moonblast is just such a good spammable move and wouldn't you know it, valiant is both the fastest and one of the strongest users of it. knock lets you wear down your walls like corv and clod more easily while letting you hit gholdengo, while psyshock targets clod and sdef pex and should probably be ran with tbolt. i feel cc is the best fighting stab even for specs because aura is weak and focus is a terrible move. cc letting you hit blissey and shit is pretty good, especially that's most of what you would want from fighting stab anyway. use focus if you really dont want to use tbolt but want corv dead anyway. (yes the four moves listed first only feature one special attack, i am only kind of trolling).

discoducky's 4 attacks set is exactly the kind of set that would take off once the meta has slowed down, i think. it can also run taunt to annoy fatter stuff, knock off to wear down stuff more easily, or sub or encore, just because.

choice scarf should be mentioned here. valiant's scarfed 116 speed outspeeding every scarfer bar meows as well as most sweepers is super nice and combined with its stabs lets it revenge stuff like bax, ada roaring moon, chien, bu ape, dnite, and random brelooms and speedy spin tusks. knock off or trickscarf means valiant can still pull its weight against bulkier teams.

ive seen calm mind sets around and they seem to have some very nice potential, again because moonblast is such an unreasonably good move, but i havent used em much so ill just leave it at that.

 

[dedede]

Iron Valiant @ Life Orb
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Psychic / Elec / Grass
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Close Combat
- Moonblast
- Thunderbolt / Energy Ball
- Psyshock

As hyper offensive this metagame is, we've already seen some variants of Stall running around in OU that all seem to have an insufficient answer to Mixed IroVal. It most notably baits in typically PhysDef Pokemon like Toxapex, but every one of its moves addresses a common element of stall (Blissey, Clodsire, Quagsire, Umbreon, Corv, Slowbro, etc.) without becoming DittoBait. Once the metagame settles down, I'm fairly certain that this might shake out to be IroVal's best set given how well it can open doors for other sweepers.

Like this set a lot, but thinking about expert belt instead

You seem to have super effective coverage for every relevant mon (unless i’m missing something thats slipping my mind) and i’m not sure if there’s any relevant calcs where you’d want life orb for a neutral hit
ofc I could be forgetting about something but I just look for excuses not to run LO since I hate getting chipped in newer gens

 

[PShine]

Since it's mentioned above, what are the thoughts on the Calm Mind set?

Iron Valiant @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Aura Sphere
- Moonblast
- Psyshock
I've been using them, you know, For Funsies because well not, and because I figured it would have a decent amount of element of surprise from people expecting physical attackers. Psychock smacks poison and allows it to pull a double "surprise!" targetting special walls as well. I'm more than willing to play around and experiment, so it's not like this is a permanent set or anything, but it has been decent. then again, It's Iron Valiant, I guess

 

[escarlata]

Like this set a lot, but thinking about expert belt instead

You seem to have super effective coverage for every relevant mon (unless i’m missing something thats slipping my mind) and i’m not sure if there’s any relevant calcs where you’d want life orb for a neutral hit
ofc I could be forgetting about something but I just look for excuses not to run LO since I hate getting chipped in newer gens

If you are using it exclusively for breaking stall, then Expert Belt is a perfectly valid option.
However, you lose quite some power when you try to default to spamming Moonblast, which for me at least, is the biggest draw of the set.
A compromise I have been making is actually running Pixie Plate.
CC targets are typically going down regardless. Thunderbolt targets like Corviknight and Toxapex are getting 2HKOed less consistently, but they do go down after minimal chip. The biggest downside is that Knock Off no longer punishes Gholdengo as hard as I wish it did, though that is just an inevitable tradeoff for avoiding LO chip.

 

[dedede]

If you are using it exclusively for breaking stall, then Expert Belt is a perfectly valid option.
However, you lose quite some power when you try to default to spamming Moonblast, which for me at least, is the biggest draw of the set.
A compromise I have been making is actually running Pixie Plate.
CC targets are typically going down regardless. Thunderbolt targets like Corviknight and Toxapex are getting 2HKOed less consistently, but they do go down after minimal chip. The biggest downside is that Knock Off no longer punishes Gholdengo as hard as I wish it did, though that is just an inevitable tradeoff for avoiding LO chip.

Yea I guess that makes sense, I was moreso looking at the set in terms of wow this has a lot of coverage instead of wow moonblast is a great move to click 90% of the time. Having strong fairy stab does seem very good in this meta so I could see where expert belt falls short compared to orb even if I hate the chip. Have not done too much testing, pixie plate seems interesting but it really sucks not getting the 2hko on corv. Do you also use tera fairy for more moonblast damage? If you're super worried about gholdengo, tera dark knock should ohko most spreads, but maybe it's not reliable to assume you'll always be able to save your tera for valiant + you miss out on stab moonblast for the rest of the battle, so really have no idea if this is worth especially when scarf forces you out regardless. Anyways I still need to play some more to see what I like best on this, but thanks for the cool pixie plate idea.

 

[GaileOxstain]

Since it's mentioned above, what are the thoughts on the Calm Mind set?

Iron Valiant @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Aura Sphere
- Moonblast
- Psyshock
I've been using them, you know, For Funsies because well not, and because I figured it would have a decent amount of element of surprise from people expecting physical attackers. Psychock smacks poison and allows it to pull a double "surprise!" targetting special walls as well. I'm more than willing to play around and experiment, so it's not like this is a permanent set or anything, but it has been decent. then again, It's Iron Valiant, I guess

Not a bad set. Honestly, a lot of the top tier threats this generation are physical in offense and defense. So more special attackers would be welcome especially now that Flutter Mane is gone.

 

[mikelos]

the special set up is best for normal tera raids

 

[yessfan]

Iron Valiant @ Life Orb
Ability: Quark Drive
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Moonblast
- Close Combat / Focus Blast
- Future Sight / Psyshock / Thunderbolt*
- Psyshock / Knock Off

*Any coverage move, Thunderbolt, Energy Ball, Liquidation, and even Shadow Ball would be the best choices probably but I have only heard/theorized with Thunderbolt, don't know what the others could do for your team.

Tera Type: Fairy or Steel

I'm surprised nobody has tried Life Orb but has gone so far as to say Expert Belt (*lol that was kinda stoopid, sorry for not reading the rest of the posts as much,) maybe there is a good reason I am not seeing but I really like the idea of having the power of Booster Energy while still being able to come back later. I personally have been running Moonblast, Close Combat, Future Sight, and Psyshock. I have noticed a startling number of people forget that this guy can (and in this instance, will) run Psychic coverage to smash wayward Poison mons; possibly because special attacking versions of this mon are rarer. I like to scare out a mon and use Future Sight as the switch happens, then I can possibly kill the ruinous mon (or Steel, or other Dark types, or maybe even a Ghost that picked the wrong day to be defensive) that ends up waltzing on in to try and absorb the sight, the sort that then try and kill valiant nearly 100% of the time; If the Poison stays in I can always smite them with the Psyshock. I haven't tried Thunderbolt but it is kinda just a stand in for coverage you feel that is more valuable, the ability to hit Waters really hard is valuable if you do pick TBolt though. The Waters you want to hit will often times be able to outspeed and kill, so I personally recommend to be careful and attack on switches or pick another coverage move I didn't see. I do not recommend running Future Sight and Knock Off on the same set, I would try running Psyshock to handle Poisons that would otherwise wall easily (or if that is less of a concern the coverage moves.) I think Close Combat is only better if the stray FocusMiss™ make you lose the game, having this mon in your DFS core or partnered with a mon that really relies on this Pokémon being there to help deal with their weaknesses is the best use case of CC. Otherwise, FocusMiss™ is a little more useful (this use case is very common however, and also I dislike Chi-Yu which can prolly eat a Focus Blast no sweat or atleast take less.)

 

[escarlata]

Iron Valiant @ Life Orb
Ability: Quark Drive
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Moonblast
- Close Combat / Focus Blast
- Future Sight / Psyshock / Thunderbolt*
- Psyshock / Knock Off

*Any coverage move, Thunderbolt, Energy Ball, Liquidation, and even Shadow Ball would be the best choices probably but I have only heard/theorized with Thunderbolt, don't know what the others could do for your team.

Tera Type: Fairy or Steel

I'm surprised nobody has tried Life Orb but has gone so far as to say Expert Belt, maybe there is a good reason I am not seeing but I really like the idea of having the power of Booster Energy while still being able to come back later. I personally have been running Moonblast, Close Combat, Future Sight, and Psyshock. I have noticed a startling number of people forget that this guy can (and in this instance, will) run Psychic coverage to smash wayward Poison mons; possibly because special attacking versions of this mon are rarer. I like to scare out a mon and use Future Sight as the switch happens, then I can possibly kill the ruinous mon (or Steel, or other Dark types, or maybe even a Ghost that picked the wrong day to be defensive) that ends up waltzing on in to try and absorb the sight, the sort that then try and kill valiant nearly 100% of the time; If the Poison stays in I can always smite them with the Psyshock. I haven't tried Thunderbolt but it is kinda just a stand in for coverage you feel that is more valuable, the ability to hit Waters really hard is valuable if you do pick TBolt though. The Waters you want to hit will often times be able to outspeed and kill, so I personally recommend to be careful and attack on switches or pick another coverage move I didn't see. I do not recommend running Future Sight and Knock Off on the same set, I would try running Psyshock to handle Poisons that would otherwise wall easily (or if that is less of a concern the coverage moves.) I think Close Combat is only better if the stray FocusMiss™ make you lose the game, having this mon in your DFS core or partnered with a mon that really relies on this Pokémon being there to help deal with their weaknesses is the best use case of CC. Otherwise, FocusMiss™ is a little more useful (this use case is very common however, and also I dislike Chi-Yu which can prolly eat a Focus Blast no sweat or atleast take less.)

Life Orb was actually the first set mentioned though, it is as good as you imagine, but EBelt and Pixie Plate are just some other options that other users proposed, which can be used to avoid the chip for some teams if desired.

Future Sight over Thunderbolt is a rather interesting choice though, especially with Life Orb. Mixed Valiant is frequently used for its ability to break stall, and non-LO sets sometimes need the power of Thunderbolt to take down Corviknight. Though with Future Sight and Life Orb, your set can probably do it with 2 CC too.

For me, the main draw of CC over Focus Blast is the fact that many of the main targets you want to hit tend to be more physically frail, notably Blissey, Chi-yu, Ttar. Most other targets tend to just fall to Moonblast.

 

[TheReal274]

I've been seeing some scarf variants lately and I tried it out myself. I think it's a pretty solid option, if slightly prediction-reliant. Iron Valiant usually doesn't wanna stay in too long after it forces something out, so it doesn't mind the move restriction of a choice scarf. In my experience it also works well both midgame and lategame, so Booster Energy isn't quite as good--losing all of your speed after switching out once really doesn't justify it as a held item on this mon, imo.

Iron Valiant @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Quark Drive
EVs: 12 Atk / 252 SpA / 244 Spe
Rash Nature
- Moonblast
- Close Combat
- Trick / Psyshock
- Shadow Ball

Moonblast and Close Combat are the main stab moves. I find Moonblast to be very spammable right now as there's a huge amount of dark types (and to a lesser but still notable extent, fighting and dragon types) on the ladder. Close Combat mostly nails Blissey but does good damage to most steels. People love switching to Gholdengo vs this mon which is why I run Shadow Ball, and Trick is a general option vs walls. Psyshock could also work to hit Clodsire but it only 2hkos physdef variants so Trick may cripple it more effectively.

The EVs outrun Timid Scarf Chi-Yu and by proxy all other base 100 scarfers and the leftover EVs are dumped into attack to beef up Close Combat a bit. This set works best once you establish a midgame rhythm and find ways to bring it in safely to wallbreak, and also as an excellent lategame cleaner. Outspeeding mons like Chien-Pao and Dragapult while also 4x resisting Sucker Punch feels great.

 

[Snukio]

My go-to set is :

Iron Valiant @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
EVs: 180 Atk / 76 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Close Combat
- Moonblast
- Knock Off
- Zen Headbutt

I love Zen Headbutt to nail Clodsire.EV spread is kinda random but I like boosting Moonblast,I'm sure optimised EV spreads will be out soon but I'm too lazy to make them lol

Anyway,this thing,as a cleaner or even as a fast hole puncher in mid game,is absolutely fantastic.Could be banworthy once the meta settles down a bit more

 

[Magcargo]

Normally, I don't like running mixed sets on most mons, but this guy is an exception. Spamming Knock Off and Moonblast in this meta feels very nice. I tried fully special sets and those were alright, but the Utility of Knock Off boosts this guy's threat level to the next level since a lot of mons are reliant on boots / Choice Items to fulfill their function and removing that makes them that much worse at their role. Almost nothing in the meta wants to switch into Moonblast / Knock Off / CC / Psyshock and Valiant's high base Speed + Booster Energy means that its impossible to revenge kill when it initially switches in. A lot of teams I've ran into just crumple to Valiant, though its answers like Skeledirge can be tricky to overcome, esp if they have Tera in their back pocket. Also this mon NEEDs its answers to be chipped w/ hazards in order to reach its fully potential since its really weak w/o Specs (and even w/ Specs, its still not the strongest). Anihilape w/o Tera is only taking about 53% from a Moonblast which is sad.

Also Iron Valiant Speed ties are the worst experience ever. Just like when I was using Meowscarada, I have lost every single Iron Valiant Speed tie and it makes me sad since my Team is also weak to this mon.

 

[TPrime]

Iron Valiant @ Focus Sash / Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature (+Spe / - SpA )
- Drain Punch
- Spirit Break
- Thunder Punch
- Swords Dance

So this is the set I’m currently running for the #1 sweeper on my team. I’m currently using Booster Energy, but I’m thinking of maybe adding a Magnazone to my team with Sturdy & Electric Terrain prior to sending out IV, as to ensure I’m able to reap the max benefits of my Quark Drive ability while also getting a guaranteed swords dance off without getting instantly bodied & to set up the sweep & while having Drain Punch as an option to restore health with the Fighting Terrastalization making it even more powerful & restorative. While having Meowscarada with Protean as my lead with max ev & iv speed while having a jolly nature, who would lead with Spikes / Toxic Spikes for hazard set up, and with U-Turn to ensure I’ll be able to switch out if that were to ever end up being an option. And while having Pex as my defensive wall (max ev & iv in Def & SpDef), and Garganacl as my offensive wall. Hoping this strategy will prove to be effective while also shaking things up abit.

 

[Ezra Koenig Worshipper]

Since it's mentioned above, what are the thoughts on the Calm Mind set?

Iron Valiant @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Aura Sphere
- Moonblast
- Psyshock
I've been using them, you know, For Funsies because well not, and because I figured it would have a decent amount of element of surprise from people expecting physical attackers. Psychock smacks poison and allows it to pull a double "surprise!" targetting special walls as well. I'm more than willing to play around and experiment, so it's not like this is a permanent set or anything, but it has been decent. then again, It's Iron Valiant, I guess

outside of blissey and iron moth, are there any other mons psyshock hits? I only ask because this thing is absolutely fucked if it runs into a gholdengo, so I'm trying to run shadow ball and wondering if I should drop psyshock or aura sphere.

 

[Hiddenfreezer]

outside of blissey and iron moth, are there any other mons psyshock hits? I only ask because this thing is absolutely fucked if it runs into a gholdengo, so I'm trying to run shadow ball and wondering if I should drop psyshock or aura sphere.

I thought Psyshock is for Clodsire - but Gholdengo is also important, true.

 

[STEELDRAGON]

Easily of the most threatening pokemon in the metagame. It outspeeds almost everything and is the only mixed attacker you commonly run into. One of the biggest things it has it unpredictability. Is it all out attacker? SD? CM?
Once you know the moveset it is a little easier to deal with but still usually wrecks shit. One of the best offensive Pokémon hands-down.

 

[Maushold is kinda good]

im surpriesed nobody ran destiny bond on one of the sets,since ironval is pretty frail its kinda useful to have an surprise attack being destiny bond,and yes if you do run destiny bond i suggest maxing out your speed and booster energy to make sure you dont die before using it from like tera steel choice band iron head garchomp

 

[fly casanova]

im surpriesed nobody ran destiny bond on one of the sets,since ironval is pretty frail its kinda useful to have an surprise attack being destiny bond,and yes if you do run destiny bond i suggest maxing out your speed and booster energy to make sure you dont die before using it from like tera steel choice band iron head garchomp

dbond is great against gholdens or dirges who are confident eating your stabs and killing you back. i don’t really miss the coverage you give up for it either, since sball to gholden or tbolt to corv isn’t OHKOing anyway

 

[Flarowak]

outside of blissey and iron moth, are there any other mons psyshock hits? I only ask because this thing is absolutely fucked if it runs into a gholdengo, so I'm trying to run shadow ball and wondering if I should drop psyshock or aura sphere.

Psyshock hits a good amount of switch ins, clodsire, amoongus, moth, blissey, and pex.

I'm also a fan of the idea of destiny bond as well. I could see it being very useful in dealing with big problem mons. Probably would be best on scarf and booster to make sure you outspeed. Also yeah, if yer baiting a gholdengo or dirge losing shadow ball doesn't hurt.