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Flash Fire
- Grants immunity to Fire and increases Fire's power 50% when hit by a Fire move.
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Statistics
|
Min- |
Min |
Max |
Max+ |
| HP |
65
|
- |
271 |
334 |
- |
| Atk |
130
|
266 |
296 |
359 |
394 |
| Def |
60
|
140 |
156 |
219 |
240 |
| SpA |
95
|
203 |
226 |
289 |
317 |
| SpD |
110
|
230 |
256 |
319 |
350 |
| Spe |
65
|
149 |
166 |
229 |
251 |
With great Special Defense, a resistance to Grass and immunity to Fire, this makes a good switch-in on almost every SunnyBeaming Grass-type and most of Flareon's fellow Fire types. Hit the incoming Water-type with Toxic and use Wish and Protect to stall them. Weak Surfs from the likes of Blastoise and Mantine don't even come close to a OHKO, so Flareon can stall them for some time.
Alternatively, you can ditch Protect and use Will-O-Wisp to cripple the likes of Aggron, Qwilfish, Golem, Solrock and any other physical attacker trying to prey on Flareon's weakness to Stone Edge and Earthquake.
Once again, those decent attacking stats are being ignored in favor of Flareon's support options. Passing Curses to an already slow physical attacker (or a fast one with a White Herb) can prove useful, although difficult to pull off. Yawn can help Flareon to Baton Pass, while Wish provides some extra healing.
More Baton Passing here, this time with Substitute over Curse. This is often the more effective of the two Baton Pass sets, as many of Flareon's common switch-ins are slower than him (provided you make a small investment in Speed), leaving him free to BP out before they get a chance to attack. Special Attacks are chosen over Fire Fang due to the higher base power.
Even with Flareon's pathetic STAB, 591 Attack hurts. Unfortunately, Flareon's physical movepool is terrible, which is clear when you realize that a non-STAB Return is actually the most powerful attack on this set. Rock Smash or Iron Tail offer "coverage" on Rock-types. Rock Smash is better against Aggron, Probopass and Bastiodon, while Iron Tail does more to everything else, such as Golem, Relicanth and Solrock. Bite covers Solrock and Lunatone if you went for Rock Smash in slot 3, and will be your best attack against Ghosts and Psychics. Quick Attack is helpful for taking out Reversal users and other weakened enemies.
While Flareon's Special Attack stat is lower than its Attack, its special movepool is slightly better. HP Grass takes out Water/Rock and Water/Ground types, and makes a nice dent in most other Waters and Rocks. Shadow Ball helps a little against Hypno and Grumpig, and does more than HP Grass to Lunatone and Solrock. The last slot is filler. Quick Attack can stop a Reversal sweep, Flamethrower gives you a more reliable STAB attack than Fire Blast or Overheat.
Other Options
Tickle, Charm and Fake Tears can cause switches.
Body Slam and Double-Edge are alternatives to Return, offering Paralysis support or some extra power. Flareon is too slow to use Flail effectively, so it is not a recommended option. There are a few different typed Hidden Powers to make use of. Ice hits Altaria, but offers poor coverage outside of killing off the Dragon. Ground hits other Fire types and also hurts Rock-types.
EVs
Support sets should focus on HP and Special Defense.
Flareon is very slow, but a small investment in Speed allows it to outrun several slow, defensive opponents. 108 Speed EVs will outrun everything from 0 Speed Blastoise on down, including Nidoqueen, Claydol, Dewgong, Solrock, Lunatone, Lanturn and Cloyster. Max out whichever offensive stat you are using, with the remaining EVs allocated to HP.
Opinion
Cursed with a terrible movepool, Flareon's impressive base 130 Attack stat is almost entirely wasted with the pathetically weak Fire Fang as its only physical STAB move and precious little in the way of type coverage. If you really want to use Flareon in a way that does not make it inferior to many of its fellow Fire-types, then using Wish or Baton Pass and Curse is the way to go.
Counters
Altaria is the best counter you can get. Resistant to Fire and with Natural Cure, she is not afraid of status. Magcargo makes a good general counter, although he isn't fond of Toxic. Choice Band sets are easily beaten by most Rock-types, like Golem, Aggron and Relicanth. Choice Specs sets can be walled by Grumpig and Hypno, despite their weakness to Shadow Ball. Camerupt is also quite effective, as are most other Fire-types, provided they have an attack that is at least neutral against Flareon. Water-types like Blastoise and Gastrodon work well, but both will hate Toxic and Choice Specs Hidden Power.