So way back in my days making fakemon at the beginning of my art thread, I came up with an idea for a defensive Fire / Flying bird that was immune to Fire- and Rock- attacks, since it was like a lava God / Spirit. Playing with the idea, I realized Fire / Flying would be an incredible typing if you throw in that Rock Immunity.
+ Rock Immunity Ability (Molten Body?)
(Immune to Stealth Rock and Rock-type Attacks)
Sure, covering a Poke's big weakness with an ability is kind of lame-- but there are pokes who do this! (Weezing, Rotom, Bronzong, Gengar, etc.), and I promise that THIS example would do something REALLY special.
Immune:
Resistance (x.25):
Resistance (x.5):
Weaknesses (x2):
One thing you'll notice is that Moltres now has almost perfectly fit resistances to major physical attacking types. Rock, Fighting, and Ground are used by almost every physical attacker, and added resistances to Steel and Bug completely blocks out Scizor and Ferrothorn (and metagross...). Resistances to Fire- and Grass are icing on the cake, and are relevant against special attackers and some niche sun physical attackers like Darmanitan and Sawsbuck. Grass resist also ensures Breloom (and Virizion) are properly put in their place.
Furthermore, Moltres ends up with only 2 weakness, both 2x, and both mainly special.
Honestly, this reminds me a lot of Skarmory! But with a different mix of resistances, lower (but more balanced) bulk, but a lot more speed and offensive power.
But let's see how Moltres's defensive type works in practice against top offensive threats.
Scizor: Scizor is completely shut down. Steel, Bug, Fighting-- Moltres resists it all, completely shutting Scizor down. Moltres can kill scizor just by breathing on it.
Tyranitar: Tyranitar is almost flawlessly shut down. Immune to Stone Edge and Earthquake, as well as resisting Fire Blast and Superpower, Crunch is TTar's only attack that can touch Moltres (unless it uses Aqua Tail or it rarer special attacks). A Will-o-Wisp or Toxic set (or HP Fighting) would bring TTar to its knees.
Breloom: Moltres has 4x resist to Grass, 2x to Fighting, and is immune to Stone Edge. Moltres's stab attacks all one shot breloom.
Landorus-T: Moltres brings Landorus-T to its knees. Being immune to both Stone Edge and Earthquake, resisting Superpower and U-Turn, the only attack Landorus-T ever carries that can hit Moltres non-resisted is HP Ice. lol Gravity would be the only issue.
Landorus-I: Moltres is immune to Earth Power and Focus Blast and will take laughable damage from HP Ice. Without Psychic or Sludge Bomb, special attacking Landorus can't do crap. Moltres also resists everything the physical set can try. Gravity is Landorus-I's only out here.
Terrakion: Moltres is immune to Stone Edge, resists Close Combat, and also laughs at EQ and X-Scissor. Terrak is completely walled, and blasted away with Hurricane or whittled down with Toxic/W-o-W.
Mamoswine: Can hurt Moltres IF it has Icicle Crash, and hits moltres on the switch. Moltres will shrug off Ice Shard with ease, resist any non-ice attack, and blast Mamoswine to bits.
Volcarona: Is flawlessly walled by Moltres, barring Hurricane or HP Water or Electric. lol Moltres would destroy Volc with its own Hurricane
Venusaur: Used Sleep Powder already? Too bad. Moltres resists every attack Venusaur can use except for Sludge Bomb and HP Ice.
Lucario: Can hurt Moltres with ExtremeSpeed if it gets set up, but that's about it.
Conkuldurr: Can only really hurt Moltres with Thunderpunch...
Infernape: Close Combat? Flare Blitz/Fire Blast? Stone Edge? HP Ice? Grass Knot? lol... maybe try Thunderpunch bro.
Moltress would also flawlessly wall: Hippowdon, Gliscor, Metagross, Ferrothorn, Forretress, Donphan, Dugtrio, Weavile, Heracross, Darmanitan, Virizion, Cobalion, Durant and more.
Even Blaziken, Excadrill, and Groudon have a hard time hitting Moltres.
252+ Atk Life Orb Groudon Dragon Claw vs. 248 HP / 32 Def Moltres: 147-173 (38.38 - 45.16%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
In fact the ONLY physical attackers that can effectively hit Moltres are Dragon-, Normal- and Water-types (Gyarados, Garchomp, Kyurem-B, Feraligatr, Haxorus, etc.)
All of this on a Pokemon that IMMUNE to Spikes, Toxic Spikes, AND STEALTH ROCK (and maybe sand too? Sand Storm is a rock type move)
Moltres would be an incredible defensive asset to any team it was put on (even without ANY defensive EVs...)-- especially with sets with lots of bulk and built to abuse its resistances (Roost, sub, status)-- BUT this defensive prowess would make Moltres's offense all the more deadly! Hurricane and Fire Blast would allow moltres to thrive in both Sun, and Rain.
Moltres has been proven to be a great offensive anti-meta asset in the right hands, held down only by its poor Speed and SR weaknesses. With a Rock-immunity, it would become a flawless switch-in to most physical attackers, and freedom from SR. Moltres's potential would explode~