phantom
Banned deucer.
☼☼☼ Vulpix ☼☼☼
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As the monarch of sun offense—courtesy of its metagame-defining ability Drought—Vulpix wields a significant degree of influence for its capability to hold entire teams on its shoulders, dilute the offensive prowess of many Water-types, and account for the viability of all Chlorophyll users. Its impressive supportive and offensive movepool means it's far from a sitting duck, as with the correct move, it has the potential to seriously cripple or 2HKO just about every threat in LC. Moreover, these characteristics allow it function as an effective stand-alone Pokemon, easily checking many dangerous threats such as Snover, Croagunk, and Magnemite. Furthermore, Vulpix's Drought ability makes its Fire-type STABs some of the strongest attacks in the game, even out-damaging Murkrow's Brave Bird. With its impressive offensive presence blended together with its good 17 Speed, Vulpix is able to equip a Choice Scarf and function as a fantastic late-game sweeper and revenge killer all the same. While the level of support Vulpix provides is unquestionably good, it's limited to no more than eight turns of sun at most with a Heat Rock. This limitation of support requires Vulpix to be played with precision and long-term planning, especially when taking into account that dedicated sun teams absolutely require its support to do anything noteworthy. To add insult to injury, Vulpix isn't so difficult to wear down due to its susceptibility to Stealth Rock as well as having rather mediocre defenses, which makes switching into even neutral-STAB attacks a daunting task. Overall, Vulpix is the personification of a "team player", as even after its demise, it might just leave a few turns of sun to pave the way for your team's victory.
- Phenomenal ability
- makes an entire play style viable
- nice offensive / support movepool
- prone to being worn down
- average stats suck
- sun nerf
- overall, a good pokemon due to its nice speed tier, sun-boosted fire-type attacks, ability to check a few relevant threats (swirlix, snover, etc), and interesting support movepool
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name: Offensive Sun Support
move 1: Fire Blast
move 2: Energy Ball
move 3: Will-O-Wisp / Hypnosis / Toxic
move 4: Protect / Hidden Power Ground / Roar
ability: Drought
item: Heat Rock
evs: 52 HP / 196 SpA / 236 Spe
nature: Timid
Moves
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- Fire Blast is generally the best stab in terms of power and consistency
- Energy Ball is used to take out bulky Water-types such as Chinchou
- Will-O-Wisp can be used to cripple slower physical attackers such as dwebble, pawniard, and meditite
- Toxic on the other hand can cripple the likes of Munchlax lacking rest and Ponyta
- Hypnosis can be used to give free turns and make it easier to pivot switch into chlorophyll users
- Similarly, Protect also eases pivot switching and gives assurance from chip damage from fake out users; it also works well to rack up damage with wow / toxic
- On the other hand, Hidden Power Ground can give good coverage on the likes of Ponyta, Tyrunt, and Skrelp
- Roar can also be effective to stop torchic and other set up sweepers
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- Heat Rock is used to extend the duration of sunny day from 5-8 turns
- a timid nature is used to get the jump on the likes of jolly meditite and adamant mienfoo, effectively crippling them with a well-timed WoW
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- This set works to maintain sun on the field and use its powerful coverage attacks and support moves to aid its teammates in sweeping
- It largely depends on the team dynamic whether or not you should send it in first
- On more dedicated sun teams, it's better to bring it out turn one to get the ball rolling; on the other hand, it's also precautionary to send out something that can take on sticky web users; otherwise, the entry hazard dilutes the effectiveness of Vulpix's chlorophyll partners
- When using a sun core, Vulpix is best saved mid-game where it can bring out sun and help its teammates achieve a sweep on the weakened team
- Vulpix should be played carefully throughout the match if it's your only means of setting up sun, meaning you should not directly switch it into an attack nor should you take the risk to attack pokemon that can otherwise ko / seriously injure it; i.e. staryu
- At the very least, this vulpix should be able to switch in 2-3 times per match, gaining an accumulative 14-21 turns of sun with a heat rock, which is more than enough for its teammates to start pounding away at the opposing team
- At that point, Vulpix may be used offensively, as it can use its excellent status moves and sun-boosted fire-type attacks to ko / cripple the likes of Lileep and Vullaby
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- Gligar, Archen, Tyrunt, and Drilbur provide some necessary defensive backbone for Vulpix's team by being able to resist rock-, ground-, and/or flying-type moves; they can all set up Stealth Rock, while most can provide hazard control in defog / rapid spin for further support
- Vulpix is more of a team player, so it supports more pokemon than the other way around
- as a result, chlorophyll users such as oddish and bellsprout pair effectively with vulpix as they can utilize drought to activate their cholorphyll ability and then proceed to smash the opposing team
- Bellsprout aids the core with its mixed offenses by being able to demolish the likes of munchlax and lickitung with power whip
- While Oddish helps by taking down spritzee and opposing fire-types with its stab sludge bomb
- Other Fire-types such as Houndour and Larvesta work as great partners as they will gain a significant boost to their stabs enough so that they can easily overwhelm the opposition's fire-type resists
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name: Choice Scarf
move 1: Fire Blast
move 2: Energy Ball
move 3: Hidden Power Rock
move 4: Overheat
ability: Drought
item: Choice Scarf
evs: 52 HP / 196 SpA / 240 Spe
nature: Timid
Moves
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- fire blast is the best stab when it comes to late-game sweeping
- energy ball and hidden power rock provide useful coverage on opposing water- and fire-types respectively
- Overheat's larger base power works effectively by koing offensive gligar and offensive misdreavus after 2 rounds of stealth rock and a slightly weakened scraggy
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- Choice Scarf is used to allow Vulpix to take on the role of a revenge killer / late-game sweeper
- can make use of extrasensory to take on the likes of tentacool
- hp electric / ice to revenge kill things like gligar and mantyke more reliably
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- this set works as an effective revenge killer and team player
- the primary application is to squeeze two teamslots into one by making vulpix function as a good source of sun for its teammates and work as the team's dedicated offensive fire type
- Generally brought in better mid-game to set up sun and use its sun-boosted moves to open holes for its teammates to sweep
- can also be used to revenge kill the likes of adamant tirtouga, abra, and other fast, frail threats as well as non-sun weather sweepers such as drilbur
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- Once again, this set appreciates pokemon that can set up and keep stealth rock off the field; gligar and drilbur both pair well synergy-wise
- Oddish and Bellsprout can also work, but it's one or the other in this case as when it's lacking heat rock, vulpix struggles to support multiple chlorophyll users
- to remedy this issue, prankster riolu can be used to set up sunny day with a heat rock and take off some pressure from vulpix, giving more leg room for vulpix's teammates to sweep and allowing more than one chlorophyll user on the team
- Gothita can be used to trap and kill the likes of hippopotas, which can make itself quite annoying by disrupting both vulpix and riolu
- Diglett can also be used to trap and kill troublesome fire-types, as they can switch into 3/4ths of the moves fairly easily
- Also pairs well with offensive Gligar and Shell Smash Dwebble as they can break down the opposing team enough so that vulpix can pull off a late-game sweep
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Pain Split may be used so that Vulpix isn't worn down as easily and works effectively on many of its common switch-ins such as Munchlax; however, its mechanics make it rather inconsistent recovery option. On the flip-side, when used correctly, the move can be quite good at wearing down Vulpix's checks. RestTalk is another form of recovery and is at least somewhat-more consistent. By utilizing RestTalk Vulpix can also run a more defensive spread so that it can last longer throughout the match, it also works as an effective status sponge. Due to the fact that Vulpix forces quite a few switches, Substitute can be used to take advantage of those opportunities, and Substitute may also be used with Disable for even more disruptive shenanigans. In regards to other methods of healing, Berry Juice is a very effective way to keep Vulpix healthy, but it comes at the cost of sacrificing Heat Rock, which reduces the effectiveness of Vulpix's supportive role.
When it comes to more offensive options, Life Orb is quite enticing given the significant power boost. For instance, Vulpix's sun- and Life Orb-boosted Fire Blast can 2HKO even bulky resists such as Archen after Stealth Rock. Flame Charge can also be a good option on more offensive variants, as the +1 Speed boost can prove especially useful to prevent Choice Scarf users from constantly forcing Vulpix out. Lastly, Sunny Day is a good option to regain momentum that instant Hippopatas attempts to switch in and override Drought with Sand Stream.
- Pain Split
- RestTalk
- Disable
- Substitute
- Berry Juice to keep it healthy
- Flame Charge
- Life Orb, giving its fire blast more power than more murkrow's LO brave bird
- Sunny Day
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- Bulky special walls / dedicated counters: Munchlax, Spritzee, Lickitung, specially defensive Hippopotas, and Goomy
- Reverse weather sweepers such as rain dance Mantyke (and mantyke in general i guess)
- Knock off: Not really a counter persay, but knock off users in general can strip away vulpix's heat rock and choice scarf, essentially taking away much of the utility from the first two sets
- Faster Pokemon that can KO: Gligar, Drilbur, LO Murkrow
- Archen, Ponyta, Growlithe, and Tyrunt can check it, but have to watch out for certain status moves / certain hidden powers
- Houndour and Diglett both work as decent offensive checks; diglett in particular can trap it and stall out sun turns with substitute (provided it has it)
- The fire-type checks in particular work very well in forcing out a choice-locked vulpix, as they resist 3/4 of the scarf set's moves
- Stealth Rock to limit the number of times it can come in and set up sun
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