This is a simple, yet very effective set. Put your primary counter to sleep with Hypnosis and once it's dead or sufficiently weakened, use Nasty Plot to boost Ninetales' rather modest Special Attack and commence sweeping with her STAB Fire attack, taking out Waters and Rocks along the way with Energy Ball. Flamethrower is recommended as it is more accurate, and Ninetales can't really afford to miss. The extra power you get from Fire Blast does help in few places though. Provided you have Life Orb, it will easily 2HKO Hypno and Probopass after a Nasty Plot. If you have sleep support elsewhere on your team, or you just want to improve type coverage, Hypnosis can be replaced with a third attack. Dark Pulse is helpful against Grumpig, who can be 2HKOed after a Nasty Plot. There are also a few Hidden Power types to consider if you want to hit other potential counters. Ice hits Altaria, Electric takes out Mantine, and Water is good for other Fire-types, like Camerupt. Leftovers helps recover HP lost from switch-in damage. Life Orb gives her a much needed power boost, if you don't mind the 10% HP drop.
This set is not as offensively threatening as the previous set, but it's very useful nonetheless. Sleep an opponent and hit physical attackers with a burn. Overheat is suggested as your STAB move, since you'll be switching out more often than with the sweeper set. If you think Ninetales will hang around for a few turns, or maybe pull off a sweep late in the game, go with Fire Blast. Similar to the common Rapidash in many ways, but Ninetales isn't as worried by Water-types as her equine counterpart is. Wide Lens is handy to give a slight accuracy boost to Hypnosis, Will-O-Wisp and Fire Blast.
Overheat and Fire Blast both provide very powerful hits with Choice Specs, while your other attacks provide type coverage. Energy Ball covers most Water-types and Rocks, and Dark Pulse helps against special walls such as Hypno and Grumpig. Hidden Power selection depends on what you find most troublesome. Ice for Altaria or Electric for Mantine. Water is also an option for Camerupt and other Fires. While many of her fellow Fire-types are more powerful with this type of set, Ninetales has the advantage of being able to carry both a Grass move (that isn't SolarBeam) and an Ice or Electric attack—something only Magmortar (Hidden Power Grass and Thunderbolt) and Infernape (Hidden Power Ice and Grass Knot) can boast. Most of Ninetales' competition are BL and above though, so she has the role of "fast Choice Specs wielding Fire-type" all to herself in UU battles. Other OptionsExtrasensory hits Tentacruel, but not much else. Grudge can be helpful to let a team member set up if you can strip away all the PP of an opponent's main attacking move. For example, you can deprive Suicune of Surf or remove all of Blissey's Seismic Tosses. Confuse Ray and Safeguard are also available, but are poor choices when compared to her other options. Ninetales can use Calm Mind but usually Nasty Plot will be more effective. EVsTimid nature, max Speed and Special Attack. Make sure to dump the last 4 EVs anywhere but HP, so Stealth Rock and Life Orb damage will round down. OpinionDP brought Ninetales a vast improvement to her movepool, when compared to ADV. The most notable additions are Nasty Plot and Energy Ball, both of which help to make her a decent special sweeper. The benefits Ninetales had previously are still there, namely her good Speed and ability to sleep her opponents with Hypnosis. While she may be a little off the standard required to compete against some of the more powerful threats (although she can acquit herself in OU in a pinch), she is a very effective sweeper in the lower tiers. CountersAltaria walls her unless she has Hidden Power Ice and with Natural Cure, switching into status isn't a problem. Ninetales also has a hard time getting past Mantine's high Special Defense without HP Electric, and can easily fall to Surf. Camerupt does well, but repeated hits from the Choice Specs set can wear him down. Hypno fares well and can switch into Hypnosis, thanks to Insomnia and can set up Light Screen or threaten to status Ninetales with Hypnosis or Thunder Wave. Grumpig works in a similar way to Hypno, but trades the sleep immunity for a Fire resist. Both need to watch for Dark Pulse. If you're using Ninetales in OU, then Blissey, Snorlax, Garchomp, Salamence, Heatran, and Infernape (amongst others) all take care of her with relative ease. |
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