The Little Bird That Could: Fletchinder in RU

By Rollout Shuckle. Art by FellFromtheSky.
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Art by FellFromtheSky

Fletchinder's historic background

Fletchinder was created in XY as part of the Talonflame evolution line, which was famous for having Gale Wings as a hidden ability. As the middle evolution of the line, Fletchinder's fiery avian body and confident gaze is a fitting step up from Fletchling. However, Fletchinder was largely overlooked as a Pokémon and not considered competitively at first, partially because of the power creep in OU / UU but mostly because middle evolutions aren't exactly known for their competitive merits.

But the worst thing you could do to yourself in an RU battle is underestimate a Fletchinder. This guy is A on the RU Viability Rankings for a reason. After RU was created, people were most likely looking for a Talonflame-like Pokémon, and fell upon Fletchinder. The rest is history. Wielding a 110 Base Power priority move in Acrobatics is no joke, and Fletchinder's poor immediate power and bulk can be maneuvered around via Swords Dance and its resistances, respectively. Fletchinder began seated in the RU and then took a brief dip in XY NU when Virizion was in the tier, but it made it back to RU near the start of ORAS. Although Fletchinder dropped in popularity in May of last year, even falling to NU, it returned to RU three months later and has remained a force there ever since.

Fletchinder's qualities

Simply put, Fletchinder's Gale Wings and a 110 Base Power STAB move to take advantage of the ability are what make Fletchinder a threat to prepare for and not some trolly gimmick you'd find in the depths of the RU ladder. This special ability to do big damage and still move before most Pokémon is helped by the fact that few typings actually resist Flying: only Electric, Rock, and Steel. Most of Fletchinder's more solid checks, such as Rhyperior, Jolteon, and Blastoise, also lack reliable recovery, which means Fletchinder's team can wear them down. Alternatively, Fletchinder itself can whittle away at these checks, and Aerodactyl, which doesn't appreciate a burn, with its own Will-O-Wisp or repeated Acrobatics.

Now that we've got that out of the way, we can take a look at Fletchinder's other qualities. Access to Swords Dance and Roost helps Fletchinder actually make use of Acrobatics by respectively boosting its bad Attack stat and keeping healthy. Fletchinder's Fire / Flying typing also does a lot of good for it, giving Fletchinder setup opportunities on Fire-, Grass-, Bug-, and Fighting-types (as well as Ground-types that are locked into Earthquake). In other words, Fletchinder checks or beats a large portion of the top threats in the tier, most notably Grass- and Fighting-types such as Virizion, Venusaur, Medicham, Emboar, and Hitmonlee, giving it a kind of "anti-meta" status (but mostly just a good selection of Pokémon to revenge kill). Lastly, access to Will-O-Wisp both weakens Fletchinder's checks and aids Fletchinder in boosting up; for example, Escavalier is made easy setup bait with Will-O-Wisp, which otherwise may be able to break past Fletchinder.

Unfortunately, as is the case with Fire / Flying types, Fletchinder possesses a 4x weakness to Stealth Rock. This weakness mandates hazard support on teams that choose to utilize Fletchinder. But it gets a bit deeper than that: with only Acrobatics as a viable Flying-type STAB, Fletchinder cannot run an item to facilitate its sweep—for example Sharp Beak or Eviolite—because Acrobatics's power would be halved. Fletchinder also lacks a decent physical Fire-type STAB move to hit Registeel, Bronzong, and Magneton with. Speaking of Magneton, its recent resurgence hasn't helped Fletchinder one bit, as it quad-resists Acrobatics and doesn't really mind a burn. Along with Fletchinder's frailty, this can make it hard to use Fletchinder. Negatives aside, though, all you need is the right knowledge on how to play and build with Fletchinder. And besides, it's very rewarding when you play well and Fletchinder achieves a late-game sweep.

The set that makes it happen

Fletchinder

This is Fletchinder's only viable set, but Fletchinder only needs one, as the Man With The Golden Gun would rightly attest. Starting with the moves, Acrobatics is Fletchinder's strongest available STAB move and fits in quite well with Fletchinder's role. Swords Dance allows Fletchinder the opportunity to turn that base 73 Attack stat into something workable. Roost is mandatory so that Fletchinder can reliably heal itself; without it, Fletchinder would be a lot less useful overall. In the last moveslot, Will-O-Wisp is the best option to cripple or wear down Fletchinder's checks, and it also eases setup against some Pokémon, like Scrafty, Granbull, and Escavalier.

U-turn is another decent option that gives Fletchinder's team some momentum, since Fletchinder forces a lot of switches. Natural Gift is an alternative that is actually really good against a few select threats. Basically, with Natural Gift, Fletchinder gets a one-time use, 100 BP Grass-type coverage move via the Liechi Berry, which allows Fletchinder to get past Rhyperior as well as Diancie, to some extent. Once it's used, Acrobatics also reaches full power once again, though this set is reliant on using Natural Gift before it can become useful. The best way to lure Rhyperior and Diancie is to use Swords Dance when the opponent switches and then use Natural Gift, although Rhyperior will need 10% of its health chipped away to get reliably OHKOed after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery, while Diancie will need 18.15% to reliably get OHKOed. Finally, Steel Wing is a possibility to straight-up OHKO Diancie after a boost, but this move is not usually worth the slot since it doesn't hit any other notable targets. Though these options are cool to mess around with, it should be noted that Will-O-Wisp is far more reliable.

The EV spread basically does a few things: it maxes out Fletchinder's Attack, allows it to switch into Stealth Rock twice, gives it some Special Defense to take on Alomomola and Specs Tangrowth's Leaf Storm, and ensures that Choice Band Escavalier can't 2HKO Fletchinder with any move. Those HP and Special Defense EVs also give Fletchinder the bulk to survive Blastoise's Scald (79-95%) at full health. Running no item on Fletchinder is usually the most reliable option and makes it so that Acrobatics can always be at full power. Of course, a Liechi Berry should be used if you want to run Natural Gift in the last moveslot.

Playing with Fletchinder

Fletchinder is a tricky Pokémon to utilize sometimes due to its frailty, but luckily there are a few key points that you should follow when playing with it. In the early game, Fletchinder can be switched into resisted attacks from Venusaur, Escavalier, Hitmonlee, and Scrafty if needed (watch out for Venusaur's Sludge Bomb). From there, Fletchinder should usually try to spread Will-O-Wisp to cripple a switch-in or pull a double switch to gain momentum. Fletchinder has two main roles it often fulfills on a team; revenge killing Pokémon and sweeping, both of which can be valuable mid- to late-game. Possible Pokémon that Fletchinder can revenge kill include Virizion, weakened Delphox, Emboar, Sneasel, Medicham, Scrafty, Gallade, Sigilyph, weakened Flygon, and Venusaur, so Fletchinder should be saved for such occasions (hint: don't let Fletchinder die until much later in the game, if at all). It's also favorable to keep Fletchinder away from Toxic.

Of course, sweeping a weakened team is definitely within Fletchinder's grasp if you find opportunities to do so. Fletchinder can force out Pokémon like Emboar, Virizion, and Hitmonlee and use Swords Dance on the switch. Another way to get that key Swords Dance boost is to find a Pokémon Fletchinder can safely set up on (Aromatisse, Granbull, and Escavalier come to mind) and just boost up from there. Finally, Fletchinder can use Choice-locked Pokémon (Flygon locked into Earthquake, Rotom-C into Leaf Storm, Dugtrio into Earthquake, Delphox into Fire Blast) as setup bait. I should mention though, that there's an additional way to sweep against offensive teams; if Fletchinder has a clear line to sweep and all it needs is a boost, it can use Swords Dance against such Pokémon as Choice-locked Emboar, Medicham Choice-locked into High Jump Kick, Mega Camerupt, Life Orb Delphox, and Houndoom that it would normally avoid. In this case, Fletchinder takes high damage in the process of boosting, but the trade-off is worth it because Fletchinder can then sweep the opposing weakened team. This should usually be avoided, but against some offensive teams it can be the key to winning the game.

Most of the time, Stealth Rock should be removed before Fletchinder enters the field. Though Fletchinder can certainly revenge kill opposing threats such as Hitmonlee and Medicham, it should wait until Pokémon like Magneton, Diancie, Registeel, Bronzong, Rhyperior, Blastoise, and Slowking are weakened before attempting a full-on sweep. Fletchinder should be played conservatively until the mid- to late-game, which is when Fletchinder will usually pull its weight.

Fitting Fletchinder onto a team

Fletchinder needs plenty of support to function well against any competent opponent. That's okay, though, because this help often worth the trouble. The first key ingredient is a way to remove entry hazards, with Flygon, Blastoise, and Hitmonlee being the most viable options. This is important because Fletchinder obviously doesn't like having half of its HP stripped away from switching into Stealth Rock. Stealth Rock is pretty useful for supporting Fletchinder as well, since it wears down Fletchinder's offensive (and defensive) checks and helps the team. Uxie with Stealth Rock and U-turn in particular is great for Fletchinder, and takes a lot of the strain of checking Fighting-types off of Fletchinder's shoulders. You should also have ways to weaken bulky Water-type Pokémon (think Jellicent, Alomomola, Blastoise, and Slowking); Grass-types such as Rotom-C, Venusaur, Tangrowth, and Virizion are useful for this, although common wallbreakers like Sawk and Meloetta will do the trick too. Magneton can also KO bulky Water-types while being able to ease Fletchinder's switch-in opportunities with Volt Switch, but more importantly, Magneton can KO Diancie with a swift Flash Cannon and generally pressures defensive cores well.

Bulky Rock- and Steel-type Pokémon still remain some of Fletchinder's biggest checks, so teammates that can KO Registeel, Rhyperior, Diancie, Bronzong, and Magneton are definitely needed. Flygon hit all but Bronzong hard with a STAB Earthquake, and can at least U-turn out to a teammate in Bronzong's case. Delphox can KO Steel-types and even knock out Rhyperior with Grass Knot, though it struggles versus Diancie. Houndoom can roast those pesky Steel-types as well and can lure and weaken Rock-types by running Power Herb + Solar Beam, though Houndoom also doesn't beat Diancie one-on-one. Dugtrio is an excellent choice for trapping Diancie, Magneton, and Registeel and can also pack Memento, both of which greatly aid Fletchinder in sweeping. Water-types such as Jellicent, Alomomola, Slowking, and Blastoise generally mesh well with Fletchinder, since Fletchinder takes on Grass-types and Water-types provide support to Fletchinder by weakening Rock- and Steel-types and taking on offensive threats via their walling abilities.

The final element of a team that is very important to Fletchinder's success is…(drumroll please) wallbreakers. Fletchinder can't sweep a team if it hasn't been weakened and dented first. Some examples of wallbreakers include Hitmonlee, Choice Band Flygon, Magneton, Exploud, Meloetta, Medicham, Mega Glalie, Emboar, Sawk, and Venusaur. You'll notice that many of these Pokémon overlap with the team roles I've previously mentioned (hazard remover, bulky Water breaker, Rock- and Steel-type breaker, Electric check). Role compression, the art of one Pokémon on a team providing multiple attributes to a team, is generally important on any team, and this goes especially for Fletchinder teams.

Playing against Fletchinder

Countering Fletchinder isn't as easy as you might think. Looking at its stat spread, Fletchinder looks like it is easily dealt with, but Fletchinder has a few unique qualities about it; it can KO or do high damage to many offensive Pokémon, and some defensive Pokémon (Fairy-types, Grass-types, etc.) can't deal with it either. However, Fletchinder does have numerous checks that it often struggles to get past. The first and main one is Stealth Rock: laying up Stealth Rock and then pressuring hazard removers like Flygon and Blastoise is one of the best ways to ensure that Fletchinder doesn't get the best of your team. Defensive Rock- and Steel-types like Rhyperior, Diancie, Aggron, Bronzong, and Registeel also take little damage from Acrobatics and can either KO Fletchinder in the former three's case or cripple it with Toxic. Beware of Will-O-Wisp, though, as it can cripple all but Diancie and chip away at them throughout the match. Diancie is probably Fletchinder's best check as it can KO Fletchinder through a burn with Diamond Storm and even heal its burn with Heal Bell, though it can be eroded (hehe) from taking hits because it lacks reliable recovery. You should try to save your Fletchinder checks for late-game, and try not to let them get worn down.

Magneton is also a solid check to Fletchinder, quad-resisting Acrobatics and OHKOing easily with any Electric STAB move of its choice. It can also pressure Fletchinder's team via its wallbreaking prowess, wearing down the overall team in the process. The bulky Water-types of RU (Jellicent, Slowking, Alomomola, Blastoise) can check Fletchinder well. All except Blastoise get reliable recovery to heal themselves, and Slowking, Jellicent, and Blastoise can OHKO Fletchinder if it's slightly weakened. Then again, Alomomola can just cripple Fletchinder with Toxic. These guys will fall to an Acrobatics or Natural Gift if they are weakened, though, so keep them in good health.

"Wow, that's it?", you say? Well, that's about it in terms of Fletchinder's defensive checks. But there's an additional element for checking Fletchinder that shouldn't be looked over: offensive pressure. Pressuring the opponent's team and making Fletchinder doesn't get an opportunity to set up is a great way to "keep it in check". Examples would include Meloetta, Mega Glalie, Rhyperior, Exploud, Jolteon, Manectric, Braviary, and Magneton; their presence on the battlefield disallow Fletchinder from switching in and sweeping. With powerful attackers combined with a defensive Flying resist, checking Fletchinder becomes a manageable task. Special attackers will usually be better for continually pressuring Fletchinder, since they can't be crippled by Will-O-Wisp.

Get out there!

With its unique, fun qualities, powerful priority, and sweeping prowess, Fletchinder will be a force in the RU metagame for months to come. Beneath its NFE status lies a mighty bird that despite its flaws manages to stay relevant in the shifting metagame due to its ability to check some of RU's most common threats, like Venusaur, Virizion, and Medicham. I hope you enjoyed reading the article learned that Fletchinder shouldn't be underestimated, lest you be swept by it in a fiery blaze of acrobatic fury!

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