Overheat from this beast does incredible amounts of damage, especially with Choice Specs. Fire Blast has a little less power, but if you have support from Sunny Day you can 2HKO Blissey with it. Although the type coverage Air Slash brings does overlap with Overheat somewhat, its neutrality hits harder on Dragons, Waters, and Fires, and Moltres is just about fast enough to make use of the 30% flinch rate. As far as covering weaknesses goes, Hidden Power Fighting is the best choice in the third slot, as without it you are left helpless against Tyranitar and Heatran. Ice comes in a very close second as it scores a OHKO on the ever threatening Dragons. Remember, though, that his Fire attacks—despite being resisted—already do masses of damage, plus Air Slash 2HKOs all of them. Grass and Electric are decent alternatives for hitting Water-types, but Air Slash comes to the rescue again as it 2HKOs the likes of Swampert, Slowbro and Gyarados. The last slot is mostly filler. U-turn is useful for scouting and does around 38% to the typical Starmie (who survives an Air Slash), but only around 25% to most Tyranitar. If Overheat is your primary attack then you can use Flamethrower for possible late game sweeping. Bear in mind that two hits from Overheat does more than two hits from Flamethrower so it only becomes a better choice if you think you'll be in for three turns or more. If you're in need of a sleep absorber you can use Sleep Talk, since Moltres can switch into sleep moves from the likes of Breloom, Tangrowth, Bronzong and Yanmega. Watch out for the occasional Stone Edge/Rock Slide from the first two though. By happy coincidence, Moltres is resistant/immune to both Jirachi's weaknesses. Therefore, the steely little guy can pass Wish to Moltres with some success and the healing support will at least negate Stealth Rock damage as Moltres switches in. You can try a Choice Scarf here if you want to compensate for Moltres' rather average Speed. Hidden Power Ice becomes the better option if you choose the speed boosting item as you lack the power to guarantee a 2HKO on Dragons with your STAB moves. It also allows Moltres to function as a revenge killer of sorts, due to the fact he outruns Choice Band/Specs variants of Salamence, along with Swords Dance Garchomp.
Moltres, after trading power for bulkiness, becomes somewhat akin to a wall and one of the most difficult Pokémon to take down. Its 148 defense EVs and a Bold nature mean that an Adamant Swords Danced Life Orb Lucario Close Combat will 2HKO, as will a Swords Danced Life Orb Jolly Weavile Ice Punch. In a similar vein, a Swords Danced Life Orb Technician Scizor Quick Attack will 3HKO. Meanwhile, Moltres OHKOs each and every one of those Pokémon back with Flamethrower. If the first two Pokémon decide to have Focus Sash instead, then their Swords Danced attacks turn into 3HKOs, meaning Moltres still beats them. Flamethrower and Toxic can hit nearly every Pokémon in the game. Water Pokémon usually don't carry Rest, so a Toxic status can debilitate them. The best counters to Flamethrower and Toxic are Tentacruel and Heatran, but even with the latter, countering Moltres isn't quite guaranteed. A Choiced Heatran is walled by Moltres, not the other way around. A Specs Fire Blast does less than 50%, and Pressure burns up Fire Blast's PP faster than napalm on top of a flame. Even if Heatran comes in on a Flamethrower, Moltres can still Roost or Substitute while it attacks and Pressure the Fire Blasts away. And since Fire Blast is more powerful than any of Heatran's other moves, Moltres can survive those moves as well. When it actually comes to attacking Heatran, yes, Moltres can't do anything back. But it really doesn't matter - Moltres's time will be largely focused on putting up another Substitute or Roosting, and in the lulls before then, it can Toxic Heatran to waste time. Moltres also beats Rest / Sleep Talk versions of Heatran, as they need to be damaged to Rest in the first place. Since Specs can't even beat Moltres, this strain of Heatran is going to do even less. Without being able to Rest, Heatran is forced to attack - almost as if it were Taunted - and Pressure slowly chokes its attacks away. If Moltres is ever paired up against a Blissey, Moltres usually stalls Blissey out of her Seismic Toss PP with Pressure, Substitute, and Roost. Ice Beams usually don't break a Substitute, and Flamethrowers naturally don't. Even if Blissey has Thunderbolt, Moltres can still win as Roost removes its Electric weakness while healing itself. Blissey's only chance to win is to either predict a Roost and status Moltres with Toxic, or use Calm Mind and Thunderbolt. Landing a Thunder Wave will also help, but paralysis doesn't quite stop Moltres (although getting fully paralyzed at a vital point quickly gets annoying ). Moltres outspeeds all Tyranitar bar Scarfed variants, and can stall out their Stone Edges if just one misses. However, if the Tyranitar isn't choiced, good players are going to either Taunt or switch to Crunch immediately. Moltres's speed also lets it outspeed Adamant Breloom and most Celebi and Jirachi. It is entirely up to you whether you want Toxic or Will-O-Wisp. Toxic has higher accuracy, weakens Water Pokémon, and damages Blissey more than the other. Meanwhile, Will-O-Wisp can cripple physical sweepers, which is a serious advantage to consider. While being a minor perk, Will-O-Wisp also hits Tentacruel. Unfortunately, Will-O-Wisp leaves you more open to Heatran, as Flash Fire will activate on half of your moves. If your team uses Toxic Spikes, Protect can replace Moltres's status move to help it stall PP even more. However, you may still want to keep the status move so Moltres can status Pokémon not affected by Toxic Spikes.
This Moltres is designed to OHKO as many typical leads as possible, while still having somewhat of a plan for the others. Most leads are OHKOed by Overheat, and if not, they are OHKOed by Air Slash. Do not fear speedy leads like Gengar or Deoxys-S: Moltres is bulky enough - even with no EV investment - to take a Scarf Gengar's or a Life Orb Deoxys-S Thunderbolt and still deliver an OHKO from Overheat. All other Gengar (LO, Specs, etc. ) are outsped by Scarf Moltres. The list of common lead Pokemon that are OHKOed by Overheat or Air Slash include Infernape, Jolteon, Azelf, Yanmega, Bronzong, Metagross, Roserade, Forretress, Crobat, Ninjask, Ambipom, Alakazam, Celebi, Skarmory, Weavile, Abomasnow ... the list goes on and on. However, Moltres gets far from perfect coverage from Fire/Flying. Tyranitar, Salamence, Swampert, Hippowdon, Zapdos, Aerodactyl, and Gyarados are some popular leads that are not OHKOed by Overheat or Air Slash. This is where Will-O-Wisp comes in. Few Pokémon like having their attack cut in half for the rest of the match, and Moltres is bulky enough to survive a Stone Edge from Swampert, Hippowdon, or Gyarados if they are burned. All bets are off if they use a choice item however, and Salamence will always OHKO with Specs Draco Meteor. Moltres is bulky enough to take on Swampert and Gyarados 1v1 and win if Air Slash flinches them, or if Gyarados or Swampert gets greedy with Taunt and Dragon Dance or Stealth Rocks. Waterfall from either does not KO. Similarly, you can punish Tyranitar or Salamence with Will-O-Wisp, but even when burned both possess the ability to OHKO Moltres. The option is open however if you predict a greedy opponent who Dragon Dances, Substitutes, or Taunts on the first turn expecting you to switch out. Both Zapdos and Aerodactyl OHKO Moltres even when burned. Zapdos doesn't care about the status and Aerodactyl would have done its job, so just U-turn out. As Will-O-Wisp punishes a greedy opponent, you have a strategy to punish conservative ones. Should there be a Pokémon who is prone to being OHKOed by Moltres, you can U-turn out and predict their switch. U-turn attacks after the opponent switches out, so you get to see who they switch to before switching in with your counter. U-Turn delays the decision until you have more information. Take advantage of this fact. Finally, Scarf Moltres is not useless in the mid-to-late game. Keep the Stealth Rocks off and Moltres can continue to be useful as a generic Ground, Fighting, Bug, and Grass resist and late game sweeper with Scarfed Air Slashes.
Moltres finally has SolarBeam to batter the Water and Rock-types that wall his Fire attacks. With a boost from Sunny Day, Fire Blast does a lot of damage and even has a shot at 2HKOing Blissey with a Life Orb. Once again you have an awkward dilemma when choosing Hidden Power. Since Tyranitar's Sand Stream screws up Sunny Day, you may want a Fighting attack to get him out of the way. Dragons are still a problem and even with Sunny Day and Life Orb, you can't KO them in one hit, so Ice is useful to bring them down before attempting a sweep. Air Slash isn't much use here, so if you're unable to obtain a desirable Hidden Power in-game, go with Will-O-Wisp to wear down Tyranitar and Garchomp. Other OptionsAgility helps to make up for Moltres' fairly average Speed. AncientPower is pretty much useless outside of killing Charizard and other Moltres. Morning Sun is a good alternative to Roost if you have Sunny Day support. EVs270 Speed (Modest, 216 EVs) is the suggested minimum for every set, since it will outrun Adamant Heracross who will Stone Edge you to death if it is faster. Timid and 228 EVs is enough to outrun most Salamence. You can max out Speed if you are feeling lucky enough to win the coin toss against Porygon-Z and Lucario. Max out his Special Attack for the Choice Specs and Sunny Day set. Stall Moltres wants 248 HP EVs for more resistance against both sides of the attacking spectrum, and so it can come in twice on Stealth Rock. It also wants as much defense as possible so it can take on physical threats like Lucario, Metagross, Weavile and family. A good option to consider on any set is a Timid nature with maximum Speed, which ties with base 90 Speed opponents with a Speed boosting nature, and outruns Adamant Garchomp and neutral base 100 Speeders. OpinionAir Slash, SolarBeam, Roost, Choice Specs—Moltres has some very useful toys to play around with now and his huge Special Attack is a massive threat to practically everything. Sadly, his boosts are offset by the massive 50% damage he takes from Stealth Rock. Rapid Spin support is a must when using Moltres — the damage is just too devastating to his survivability without it. When using the Choice Specs set, Moltres may often find himself fighting for a team slot with Heatran. The walking volcano offers stiff competition thanks to his better movepool and massive list of resistances and perhaps most notably, his neutrality to Rock and by extension, Stealth Rock. However, Moltres' immunity/resistance to the Ground and Fighting attacks Heatran fears can give the bird more opportunity to switch in, given how common both of those attack types are. Crippling though his Rock weakness may be, Moltres should not be so readily ignored as he can still be a lethal sweeper or an effective staller with the right support. CountersSnorlax is the best counter around thanks to Thick Fat buying him a Fire resist. Will-O-Wisp annoys the fat man, but many 'Lax have Rest and Sleep Talk so it won't really stop him demolishing Moltres. The best the fiery bird can muster is a Choice Specs Hidden Power Fighting, which fails to 2HKO. Blissey walls most sets quite effectively, although as was mentioned already she can be 2HKOed by a Sunny Day Fire Blast if Moltres carries Life Orb or Choice Specs. Taunt Heatran, Tentacruel, and Empoleon are the best counters to a stalling Moltres, rendering its attacks useless (unless Moltres has Will-O-Wisp for the latter two) and forcing it to switch. If Heatran has Metal Sound and is faster, it is also a viable counter, as Metal Sound has 64 PP. Most other potential counters need to be wary of specific Hidden Powers, Will-O-Wisp and Toxic. Heatran will switch in easily if you don't have Hidden Power Fighting and he'll love getting boosts from Fire attacks. Be aware that Stall sets can sap Heatran's PP with Pressure. Tyranitar walls any set that lacks Hidden Power Fighting, plus he screws up Sunny Day with Sand Stream. Dragons can beat him if he doesn't have an Ice attack, although they take heavy damage from the Choice Specs set. Jolly Garchomp is your best bet as he can outrun Timid Moltres. Sand Veil plus Sandstorm support means Moltres will also have a hard time getting Will-O-Wisp to land. Milotic and Suicune both have high Special Defense, enabling them to survive three boosted hits from Air Slash. They get 2HKOed if Moltres carries a super effective Hidden Power. Milotic is the best choice since she can Recover and also benefits from a burn thanks to Marvel Scale. They both have trouble with the Sunny Day set though. The best way to keep Moltres under control is to get Stealth Rock in play, which will drastically restrict his opportunities to switch in. |
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